


Space Magic

by phoenixshadow666



Category: Voltron - Fandom, Voltron legendary defenders, hogwarts - Fandom, vld - Fandom
Genre: Gryffindor Keith, Gryffindor Lance, Hufflepuff Hunk, M/M, Slow Burn, Slytherin Pidge, you’re going to be tearing out your hair by chapter 10 I swear
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-17
Updated: 2019-07-28
Packaged: 2019-10-30 02:06:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 20
Words: 27,766
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17819738
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phoenixshadow666/pseuds/phoenixshadow666
Summary: Keith isn't usually the person who makes friends easily. But when a certain Cuban wizard worms his way into his life, Keith can't help but get along with him. However, somewhere along the way, that friendship turns more into a painful truth for him.~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~I've always wanted to do a Hogwarts AU, and this seems like the right ship to do for one, so here we go!*this story takes place after the Battle of Hogwarts, two years after*!¡!¡THIS IS A SLOW BURN. THEY ARE OBLIVIOUS AND IM GOING TO MAKE YOUR HEADS EXPLODE¡!¡!Just FYI, yes, the tone is American cause it didn't feel right to change the way the talk, so they've like, just moved to the UK.This book is updated on Sundays!





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hiya! I’m Phoenix!
> 
> This fanfic is originally from my account on wattpad, but I thought I’d post it here too since it seems like not many vld fans go to wattpad for Klance fics!
> 
> Anyways, I hope you enjoy! I’ll have the other chapters up soon!

Keith glared out the train window, his barn owl, Lion, perched on his shoulder.

The warning whistle blew and parents frantically started kissing and hugging their children while simultaneously herding them towards the train.

There was a thundering of feet as kids ran to get the empty compartments to sit in with their friends. More than likely Keith would be getting a knock in

three...

two...

one...

The compartment door flew open and Lion spread his wings in surprise.

"What?" Keith asked, turning and looking at the newcomer while petting Lion to calm him down.

A boy around his age, 11, was standing there looking very put on the spot. He had tanned skin and dark brown hair along with jeans and a blue and white t-shirt.

"Everywhere else is full already, can I sit here with my friends? I'm Lance." The boy said, smiling and extending a hand to shake.

"Go ahead. These seats aren't taken." Keith said, ignoring Lance's hand and turning back to the window, just in time to to see the train start moving away from the station with a jolt.

"Cool, thanks man!" Lance said, and he dragged his trunk into the compartment, lifting it with some difficulty and barely managing to get it in the tray above the seats.

He helped his friends get their trunks in, then they all sat down. Keith looked over at them. Lance, and then another boy and a girl.

"I'm Hunk." The other boy greeted. He had an orange bandana wrapped around his forehead and tied in the back, with the extra length hanging. He had darker skin and black hair, and was wearing a yellow sweater and jeans.

"Pidge." The girl muttered, not even looking up from her textbook. She had short, lighter brown hair and pale skin, like she didn't spend a lot of time outside. She also had huge round glasses that took up most of the upper half of her face. She was wearing a green jacket and shorts.

"What did you say your name was?" Lance asked, furrowing his eyebrows, "I can't remember if you said."

"I didn't. I'm Keith."

"Nice to meet you, Keith." Hunk said, smiling. Pidge just gave a grunt of acknowledgement.

Keith went back to staring out the window, until the snack cart arrived. He bought a couple cauldron cakes and pumpkin pastries, along with some pumpkin juice. He grabbed some Bertie Botts' Every Flavor Beans and Chocolate Frogs, as well, just for the fun of it. Lance looked at the box of jelly beans confused.

"What's the big deal about the Every Flavor Beans? My parents never let me have them, but what's so bad about jelly beans?"

Keith smirked and picked out a jelly bean for Lance.

"Try one."

He offered, while Pidge finally looked up from her book and watched with amusement. Lance took it and eyeballed it, muttering 'marshmallow', before he popped it into his mouth.

He immediately sputtered and grabbed his pumpkin juice.

"What flavor was that? I think your batch is bad!" He exclaimed while Pidge roared with laughter.

"No, you must've gotten soap. When it says every flavor, it means every flavor. There's peach, or it's less wanted opposite, vomit. Marshmallow or soap. Lime or grass. Cinnamon is really the only one without a negative counterpart, and I've found it cuts the bad flavors pretty well." Keith explained, still smirking a bit.

"You could've told me that before I ate it!" Lance complained.

"Where's the fun in that?" Lance pouted until Hunk gave him some sort of homemade brownie thing. Apparently, he made it himself.

30 minutes out from Hogwarts, the prefects for that year started walking down the aisles and knocking on compartment doors, saying it was time to change into robes.

Pidge excused herself and went to the bathroom to change, leaving the boys to stumble over their own feet as they tried to get their robes out of their trunks.

Fortunately, Keith had already unpacked his robes and had folded them neatly next to his trunk, so he didn't have to rifle through his things. It was just a matter of slipping them over his gray sweater and black slacks, which was the uniform that was worn under the robes.

So he sat back in amusement and fed Lion crumbs of a Cauldron Cake. Ten minutes of Hunk and Lance stumbling around later, five of which Pidge spent laughing since she got back early, they were seated, waiting for the train to stop.

"What house do you think you'll be in?" Hunk asked.

"I don't know. I just hope my housemates aren't dumb." Pidge said, "All I know is if the girls in my dorm try to put makeup on me, I'm sleeping in the common room."

"Ooo I wanna guess where we'll all end up!" Lance piped up, "Hunk’s obviously a Hufflepuff; you're so hardworking plus you love cooking and their common room is right next to the kitchens!

"Pidge is a Ravenclaw, since you're so good at math and stuff. You're pretty creative with your solutions too.

"And Keith, is guess you're a Slytherin, I haven't had a chance to really evaluate you for what house you'd be in."

Keith scowled.

"That's a good reason to say somebody's in a certain house." Keith remarked, sarcasm dripping from his words, "Can I say my own predictions?"

Lance shrugged, and Pidge and Hunk nodded.

"Hunk, you do seem like a Hufflepuff, you seen hardworking, and dedicated to cooking from what I've seen. You're also kind, and you seem like a pretty patient person.

"Pidge is a Slytherin. You're cunning and from what I've heard, I'm confident you could talk your way out of any sticky situation, or think your way out. You could also be a Ravenclaw though, seeing as you've been muttering about trying to figure out an algorithm to figure out when the stairs will change this whole time.

"Lance, I'm stuck on where you'd go. You seem loyal like a Hufflepuff, but also cunning like a Slytherin. You're also smart like a Ravenclaw and from the stories you told you're reckless like a Gryffindor. You could honestly go in any of the houses in my opinion." Keith sat back, crossing his arms.

"I think being in any of the houses would be awesome!" Hunk said, "I think I'd want to be in Hufflepuff though, like my mom. Ravenclaw would be cool too though."

"Ravenclaw would be cool for me. Same with Slytherin. Least there I know nobody's going to be reckless and lose points." Pidge spoke through her book, which she had opened again. She looked out the window as she kept talking.

"Ultimately it's up to the hat. That's what's going to decide it for us." Pidge said, "Oh look, there's the station."

Nobody had noticed Keith and Lance hadn't said anything about which house they think they'll be in.


	2. Chapter 2

Keith coaxed Lion back into his cage and grabbed his trunk from the overhead shelf, getting it down with the help of Hunk, and then set off with Lance, Hunk, and Pidge. Keith actually wouldn't mind being friends with them, as long as they didn't mind being friends with him.

They put their trunks with the rest of the first years things and glanced around, wondering where to go.

"Firs' years this way! Firs' years to me!" A voice called over the wave of students exiting the train.

"This way." Keith said to them, and they muscles their ways through the crowd to where a friendly looking man was standing, holding a lantern.

The man was huge, probably around 7 or 8 feet tall, and he had a beard like a birds nest, but his eyes twinkled kindly, and he gave off an air of loyalty.

"That must be Hagrid." Keith muttered to himself. His mother had told him about the games-keeper of Hogwarts, who was also the Professor of Care of Magical Creatures.

The herd of first year students made their way over to the gameskeeper, while the older students got in carriages pulled by what looked like skeletal horses.

"How do you think the carriages are being pulled? There's nothing there." Lance whispered to them.

Keith looked at him, then back at the skeletal horses, confused.

"What do you mean? There's like, a skeletal horse with wings there. It's like a bat and a skeleton combined." He said, still confused.

Pidge's eyes widened. She began furiously flipping through her book until she found the page she wanted.

"Does it look like this?" She asked, pointing at a picture that looked exactly like the horses pulling the carriages.

"Yeah, exactly like that. Why?"

"Did you lose somebody?" She asked, "Those are thestrals, they can only be seen by-"

"Firs' years, this way!" Hagrid called, now that the carriages were moving, and they were pulled along with the group of other first years.

They walked down to the lake to find several boats.

"Four t' a boat! No more'n four a boat!" Hagrid called, and Lance, Hunk, Pidge and Keith scrambles to find an empty boat, and when they found it they sat down quickly.

The boat ride brought them out into the lake where they caught their first glimpse of the castle.

There was a chorus of gasps, _ooh_ s ,and _ah_ s when they saw the castle, which had lights sparkling from every window. It sat on an outcropping of land and there was a forest in the background, giving it an air of mystery. It was tall and regal looking, with ivy draping from the walls, adding a magical look that only a slightly overgrown castle could achieve. There were small balls of light illuminating the way to the castle, and Keith spotted another first year girl giggling and bouncing one up from the water with her hand.

The boats made their way across to a cave entrance covered in ivy and they traveled through. They saw a dock, where the boats glided gently to a stop and bumped against the stone walkway. The first years eagerly scrambled over each other, some of them almost shoving their new classmates into the water in their haste.

"A'ight. Careful now, don't wan' any of you lot havin' to be fished ou' of the water." Hagrid said, "You'll ge' to the Great Hall, don' worry."

They regrouped and started walking up the staircase to the room just outside the Great Hall, where they were met by an elderly woman.

The woman had an emerald dress that touched the ground and a pointed hat, along with some glasses and a stern look. She looked as though she was strict, but she also had an air of trustworthiness that made Keith relax a bit even though she was standing with a strict posture and pursed lips.

"Hello first years." She greeted, "I'm Minerva McGonagall. Welcome to Hogwarts. Before you go into the Great Hall to begin sorting, there are a couple things you need to know.

"After you get sorted, you will go sit with your assigned house, and wait for the other students to be sorted. When your name is called, it will be last name then first name, and you will come up, sit on the stool, and I will place the sorting hat on your head. The hat will assign you your house and you will sit down. Now, if you will follow me, we can let you begin sorting."

She turned, and the group of first years, including Keith, Lance, Hunk and Pidge followed excitedly. Professor McGonagall waved her wand and the huge doors to the Great Hall opened with a low thud, revealing the enormous room.

There were four tables, with several seats open at each one. The ceiling looked enchanted, and it showed the sky, making it look like an open ceiling room. The room was lit with braziers on the sides and candles floating in the air above the tables. Every head in the hall turned to face the group of first years as they entered. Keith was suddenly glad he was in the center of the group, and he turned his attention to the shabby old hat on the stool at the end of the room, in front of the table of teachers.

Keith noticed that every other first year was suddenly nervous, their excitement diminishing and giving way to anxiety.

The group of first years came to a stop at the end of the hallway, and Professor McGonagall climbed the three steps that slightly raised the teachers table, and she stood next to the shabby Sorting Hat.

"Welcome firsts years, now, let's begin the sorting Ceremony." She said, and waved her wand to conjure a scroll, "Newman, Michelle."

A small girl walked up and the sorting ceremony began. Keith didn't really pay attention, but he turned in occasionally. Then it was Pidge's turn.

"Holt, Katie."

Pidge walked up and sat on the stool, and the hat was placed on her head.

**Pidge POV**

The hat muttered in Pidges ear as soon as it was placed atop her short brown hair.

_Hmmm...yes, the cunning is there, and you've got the brains, but...what's this? There's a quick wit and ability to think on your feet..._

**Just get on with it. We haven't got all day.**

_Hmm...there's that impatience that drives you to think on your feet. Ambition too. Better be..._

"SLYTHERIN!"

Pidge smirked at her friends and walked over to the Slytherin table to sit with her new housemates. She knew she'd always looked good in green.

Then it was Hunks turn.

**Hunk POV**

"Garrett, Hunk!"

Hunk walked up nervously, and sat on the stool, then the hat was placed over his head.

_Ah! Such creativity, and you're accepting too, but there's also loyalty, and kindness to spare. There's patience here too...Where to go, where to go...I think you'll be best in..._

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

Hunk sighed with relief and made his way over to the Hufflepuff table, and started watching as Lance was called.

**Lance POV**

"McClain, Lance!"

Lance nervously walked up, and sat down, pray omg it wouldn't take too long to be sorted. He'd hate to be known as the kid who confused the Sorting Hat.

_Yes...yes...there's bravery and recklessness, but also cunning and quick wit. Then there's the loyalty, but also a distinct originality...yes...you are difficult indeed, but I do love a challenge._

**I just want to be sorted. Hurry up. Don't keep the other first years waiting's**

_Oh! There's a streak of chivalry here, and bravery here...and...yes, I know where you go. Now off you go...to..._

"GRYFFINDOR!"

Lance grinned at Hunk and Pidge as he went to go sit at the Gryffindor table and sat down to watch the sorting ceremony, which was almost down at this point. Just Keith, a girl with white hair, and a boy who was smirking like he knew where he'd go.

"Kogane, Keith."

Keith marches up to the hat confidently, and sat down, ready to get this done with.

**Keith POV**

The hat touched his head, and he heard the mutters everybody else had heard.

_Short tempered, rebellious, yet also daring and...ha! Yes, you fit perfectly into_

"GRYFFINDOR!"

The hat had only been on his head for about 30 seconds, which was a quick sorting according to some older students He overheard talking as he sat next to Lance at the Gryffindor table.

"Altea, Allura!"

The girl with white curly hair walked up to the hat and sat down. It touched her head for only a moment before announcing "RAVENCLAW!"

"Daibazaal, Lotor!"

The hat didn't even touch his head before it decided.

"SLYTHERIN!"

And with that the sorting ceremony was complete and the headmaster stepped forwards.

"Greetings students, I'm Headmaster Dunn. Welcome to Hogwarts, or welcome back to our older students. Before the feast starts I'd like to address some important points.

"The Forbidden Forest is strictly off limits. House points will be taken away from anybody who breaks this rule, and a severe punishment will occur. On the subject of house points, if you follow rules, you earn points for your house, if you break them, you lose points."

Keith tuned out a lot of the speech, only paying attention when it seemed important.

"Quidditch tryouts will be held in one months time, and are off limits to first years. Yes, I know how disappointed you are, but it's for safety reasons. You can tryout next year."

Keith sunk in his seat. He was looking forward to the tryouts, and he couldn't even do them? Stupid rules.

He sulked for the rest of the speech, but his disappointment was soon forgotten after Headmaster Dunn clapped and the food appeared.

After the feast, he followed his prefect to the Fat Lady, and they entered (the password was 'Godric') and they saw the Gryffindor common room for the first time.

There were armchairs places in small groups over by the fireplace, and the floor was stone, but there were rugs placed through out the room, probably because of how cold it got in winter.

Keith went up to the boys dorms and found his name on a piece of parchment outside one of the doors. He went in to find Lion there, along with his trunks. He opened Lions cage and let him fly around, while he grabbed his pajamas and changed.

The door opened behind him as he finished getting changed and his roommates walked in.

Lance, a boy named George, and another boy named Caleb were his roommates. Oh boy.

Room mates.

 


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith goes to his first day of class in Hogwarts.

Keith woke up the next morning before the sun had risen, as always. He got up to go take a shower, and grabbed his robes so he could change after. He didn't really want to be walking around in a towel.

He showered quickly and got dressed before brushing his teeth and going back to his dorm to grab his books for the day.

When he got back, he noticed Lance was still dead asleep, but the other two boys were starting to wake up. Keith grabbed his books quickly and headed down to the common room to read before breakfast. He knew teachers liked pop quizzes on the first day to see who had actually studied the books over the summer. He hated studying, but he hated being made a fool of more.

Halfway through skimming his potions book, other students starting coming down and exiting for breakfast. Keith put his book in his bag and started down with them.

It looked like he was the most awake of the students, as most of them were nodding off at this hour. The clock chimed 7 as Keith sat down for breakfast. His first class was at 8, so he had an hour to eat and make it there.

He studied his schedule as he ate, so he knew what he had. He had Charms first, with the Ravenclaws, and then Potions with the Slytherins. Transfiguration was after lunch with the Hufflepuffs, and last was Defense Against the Dark Arts with the Ravenclaws again. Then he had free time before dinner. He put his schedule away as owls started pouring into the great hall with mail.

He watched with wonder as owls flew in and soon filled the ceiling, gliding to their owners and dropping mail into waiting hands.

Keith saw Lion flying in the rafters and watched as he flew down and landed in front of him, with a letter tied to his leg.

Keith untied it and fed Lion some owl treats he kept in his robe pockets and absently scratched the owls head while reading his letter.

It was pretty much just his mom saying she hoped he would write as soon as possible, and that she hoped he had a good sorting ceremony. The usual things you'd expect in a letter the first day of boarding school.

Suddenly, a very tired looking Lance flopped down onto the seat next to him, yawning.

"Look who's finally up." Keith commented, "I thought you were going to wake up and be late to Charms."

"Haha, very funny. Did you even brush your Mullet this morning?" Lance grumbled.

Looks like Lance wasn't a morning person.

"Touché"

They ate their food and somehow made it to Charms without getting lost.

"Hello class!" Prof. Flitwick greeted cheerfully from atop his stack of books, "Today we have a syllabus to go over, which is just basic rules and such, and then we'll be learning a rather simple charm by most standards, the levitating charm! Now, for the rules..."

Keith zoned out, it was pretty much the same rules as elementary school.

"Now, onto the charm. Can anybody name the incantation for the Levitating Charm for me?"

The girl from sorting with white hair raised her hand.

" _Wingardium Leviosa_."

"Very good, Allura! 5 points to Ravenclaw!" Flitwick said, "Today we will be learning and casting the Levitating Charm, Wingardium Leviosa! Now, you'll be working in pairs with the person next to you. Can I get a helper to pass out a feather to every pair?"

Another student went up to pass out feathers, Flitwick showed them the wand movement and proper pronunciation, and they began attempting to cast the spell.

Keith paired up with Lance, and failed several times to make the feather float before shoving it angrily at Lance.

"It won't work." He grumbled as Lance stared at the feather in front of him.

" _Wingardium Leviosa_!" Lance cast, moving his wand in a horizontal S motion to the right before flicking his wrist up and to the left.

The feather shot up off the desk and floated, Lance smirking at Keith as he directed it with his wand.

The classroom had gone silent and Keith realized Lance was the first to successfully make the feather float.

"Very good, Lance! 10 points to Gryffindor!" Flitwick congratulated, as the feather flew in lazy swoops and twirls around the room, following Lances directions.

"How'd you do that?" Keith asked, once Lance had landed the feather in front of them.

He pulled the feather over and tried to do the spell again.

"You're moving your wand too quickly." Lance said, "You need to move it slower, like your lifting it not throwing it."

Keith slowed down his wand movement, copying what Lance did.

" _Wingardium Leviosa_!" He cried, and the feather lifted off the desk, hovering a couple inches above his head.

"I did it!" Keith said excitedly, before losing concentration and watching as the feather drifted back downwards, "Nevermind."

"Ah, you'll get it. Try again!" Lance encouraged, beaming at him.

Keith tried again and again until he could make it float for a good 30 seconds. By that time, it was near the end of class, so Keith and Lance watched lazily as their classmates floated feathers around the classroom.

The clock chimed from the courtyard, and Flitwick cheerfully announced the end of class.

Keith put his wand away and checked his schedule to make sure he remembered his next class.

"We've got potions next! Oh boy, I've heard the teacher is pretty strict." Lance said, looking at Keith's schedule over his shoulder.

"Let's hope she's in a good mood." Keith muttered.

He'd heard stories of the strict potions master too.

They walked in and saw a woman with long white hair, probably grayed with age, standing at the front of the classroom. She was wearing long black and red robes and her hood was up, obscuring her eyes.

"Settle down class." She snapped as soon as everybody had been seated, "I am Professor Haggar. In my class I will not tolerate speaking without permission, nor will I appreciate this wand-waving business, so those of you who have retrieve those foolish sticks of wood may put them away immediately."

A couple students hurried to shove their wands back in their pockets.

"In my class, I can guide you to make even the most complex of potions, provided you pay attention. You will become skilled in the art of brewing potions and your enemies will both fear and respect you." She said, a slight sneer in her words.

Suddenly, she snapped her head towards Keith.

"Kogane! Name an ingredient I would use to brew the Draught of Living Death!"

Keith's mind blanked. He had studied this. He knew it.

"Um...Valerian Sprigs?" He answered, praying the commonly used ingredient was in the given potion.

"Mmm...correct." She sighed, sounding disappointed.

"McClain! What potion would I get if I combined Lethe river water, Mistletoe berries, and Valerian Sprigs?"

"A Forgetfulness Potion?" Lance guessed.

"Correct again." She sighed.

"Holt! What is a bezoar used for?"

"It's used to cure most poisons, with Basilisk venom being a notable exception." Pidge answered confidently, adjusting her glasses nonchalantly.

"Correct, once again." The professor sighed, then seemed to glare at them from under her hood, "Well? Why is there not a single quill moving?"

There was a furious rustling as student scrambled to get out their parchment, ink and quill before they forgot what was said.

"Today, we will be learning what each ingredient looks like. You will bring out your textbooks and turn to the first page, where you will find illustrations and labels for ingredients we will use this year. Well? Get to it! And if I hear a single word you will lose 5 points for your house!"

Potions passed by painfully slow, and Keith was glad to get out of the stuffy dungeon room, away from that teacher.

"Dang, who put frog slime in her pumpkin juice?" Pidge commented as she walked up with Lance.

"All I know is she obviously hates us. And she's your Head of House!" Lance cried, throwing his hands above his head, "How can she even hate students on the first day!"

"I think she just hates all the students. We were just closest together. And we didn't look like we were paying attention." Pidge noted.

"Whatever the reason, I'm hungry! I just want to get some lunch already." Keith complained as they reached the Great Hall.

Hunk joined up with them and they all sat at the Ravenclaw table, as the only time they had to sit at house tables was dinner.

"Are you guys ready for Transfiguration?" Hunk asked, excitedly, "I hope we get to do some spells!"

Pidge sulked as she checked her schedule.

"I've got Herbology next..." she muttered, "I hate plants. And bugs. And the outdoors."

"I'm excited for Defense Against the Dark Arts!" Lance chimed in, "I hear this year is the first teacher who's lasted more than a year since You-Know-Who popped up and Harry Potter defeated him."

"Yeah, he's apparently really good too!" Hunk said, smiling.

"Yeah." Keith agreed, so they wouldn't call him out for being suspiciously quiet on the DADA teacher.

And he wasn't lying.

His brother Shiro really was good at his job.

 


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Good grief, three chapters already and we aren't even through the first day.

Lance, Keith and Hunk left for Transfiguration while Pidge set off for the greenhouses, grumbling about bugs.

"I wonder if McGonagall will be super strict." Lance wondered aloud.

"Nah, she'll be strict. I get the feeling she's the type of teacher that you don't want to get in the bad side of." Keith added.

"I heard she once took four stunning spells to the chest." Hunk whispered.

"No way! That could kill a man!" Lance whisper yelled back, shocked.

"McGonagall seems too stubborn to let some stunning spells take her down." Keith commented as they reached the door to the Transfiguration classroom, "Come on, we should get to our seats before class starts."

They sat together, and Keith thought for the third or fourth time since yesterday in the train about how Lance, Hunk and Pidge had seemed to so willingly accept him as part of their group. He normally felt uncomfortable around new people, but he felt right at home with them.

A small tabby cat was sitting in McGonagall's desk as students filed in and sat down. A couple of kids ran in just after the clock chimed in the courtyard and sighed with relief that McGonagall wasn't there yet.

However, before they could sit down, the cat tensed and leapt forwards, and then it morphed...it morphed into McGonagall, who gazed sternly at the tardy students.

"Since it is your first day, I will allow this to pass but do not be late to my class again. Understood?" She scolded.

The students nodded and sat down quickly.

"Today we will not be doing any spells." Prof. McGonagall announced, and her words were closely followed by a chorus of groans and complaints.

"In order to learn Transfiguration, you just first learn how to read the basic magical alphabet, as your textbook uses it quite often. Open your books to page 23 please, and read the chapter on the magical alphabet."

Keith sighed as he put his wand away and opened his book. He started writing his notes. He copied the chart of Transfiguration runes and zoned out while he read the chapter.

Then, it was time for Defense Against the Dark Arts.

The Gryffindors and Ravenclaws filed in and sat down, eagerly waiting to see the teacher who had supposedly broken the 'curse' that was over the DADA position.

Keith watched the door at the top of the small staircase as the bell rang from the clock. The door opened and Shiro stepped out with his lesson plan.

Shiro had black hair that was cut short on the sides, and cut longer in the top. There was a streak of gray in his bangs, which were swept to the side, most likely in an attempt to look more professional. His right arm was a metal prosthesis, and it was glowing slightly where defensive runes were inscribed on it.

"Settle down class, and we can get to the spells quicker." Shiro said, placing his papers on his desk, "Now, you can address me as Professor Shirogane. I'm going to go over the rules and then we can get started."

Five minutes of Shiro teaching rules later, every student had their wands out and they were ready to start.

"Now now, hold on. We're almost to the wands. First, I want you to write down every offensive and defensive dueling spell you know. No, you can't write down illegal spells."

There was a rustling of parchment and a scratching of quills. Keith smirked; he loved the mock duels he and Shiro would do when they were younger, and he guessed that was what they were doing now.

He started writing his list, beginning with the offensive spells, then moving into defensive spells.

_Incendio_  
_Stupefy_  
_Petrificus Totalus_  
_Expulso_  
_Levicorpus_  
_Locomotor Mortis_

_Protego_  
_Expelliarmus_  
_Expecto Patronum_

Keith set down his quill, and looked around, realizing he one of the last to finish. Shiro gave him a knowing look, the type of look that says 'don't be a show off'

"Okay, now, I want you to cross off every spell you don't know how to cast." Shiro told them, and there was another rustle of parchment.

Keith crossed out _Expecto Patronum._ He had learned the other spells from Shiro they would fake duel.

"Okay, now we can get to the wand stuff. I'm going to teach you three spells today, one offensive and two defensive. Don't worry, they're fairly easy and they're good to know." Shiro announced, "Now, if you'll leave your things here, we're going to be practicing these spells in the courtyard, so we don't cause any accidental damage to the classroom."

The first years excitedly made their way to the door and Keith felt the cool metal of Shiros hand on his shoulder.

"Don't be a show off." Shiro whispered to him as he patted his younger brother on the shoulder.

"Fiiiiine." Keith replied, jokingly rolling his eyes.

The class gathered around the fountain in the courtyard and waited for Shiro to pair them up. They had handed in their papers so Shiro had a good idea of everybody's knowledge of spells and could pair them up fairly.

"Allura and Lance. George and Kyle. Penny and Drake..." Shiro said, listing off the names.

Keith was the last to go.

"Keith, if you wouldn't mind, I'd like you to start with a mock duel with me." Shiro said.

There were murmurs throughout his classmates, but Keith ignored them.

"Of course, sir." He said, smirking as he drew his wand.

"Only use spells that will not harm each other, deal?" He muttered to Keith, who nodded.

Shiro drew a large chalk circle and he and Keith stood in the center, back to back.

They took ten paces, then turned and bowed. Then, the mock duel began.

"Expelliarmus!" Shiro cast, shooting a bolt of red light at Keith, who cast Protego to block it.

 _'Levicorpus!'_ Keith thought as he pointed his wand at Shiro and flicked upwards, causing the professor to be suddenly dangling by his ankle in midair.

"Expelliarmus!" Keith cast, and Shiros wand flew into his hand.

" _Liberacorpus!"_ Keith thought, jerking his wand upwards, causing Shiro to drop from where he was being suspended.

"You got me this time." Shiro congratulated, "I think you're going to be a pretty good dueler."

"I only know those spells because of you." Keith smirked, helping his brother up from where he was untangling himself from his own robes.

"So you're saying that it's my own fault you won?"

"Basically."

The other students swarmed them and Shiro drew ten more circles with his wand, then showed them how to do the formalities of a duel.

"How'd you beat him?" Lance asked, "I mean, he's the _teacher_. And you just...beat him."

Keith shrugged.

"He's my brother." He answered simply, "Taught me those spells."

Lance blinked at him.

"Professor Shirogane is your brother?" He asked, "I guess that explains why he looks so much like you."

"Lance, aren't you supposed to be dueling Allura?" Shiro asked as he approached the duo.

"Sorry professor!" Lance apologized as he went off to find Allura.

"Who was that?" Shiro asked Keith.

"A friend." Keith answered.

"A Friend, eh?" Shiro asked, "A friend that you've already made on the first day and seem extremely comfortable around."

"I met him on the train. We bonded over Bertie Bott's every flavor beans." Keith shrugged, "I've got other friends than him don't worry, they're just in other houses."

"Awe, baby brother Keith is making friends! I'm so proud!" Shiro mocked him, "Don't forget to write to Mom about being in Gryffindor. She'll want to give you something themed with your house colors, even if it's just a pair of gloves." He paused to think. "Is it like, a rule that every wizarding mom either knows how to knit or has enchanted knitting needles to knit for her?"

"I don't know. I think that students trying to get your attention." Keith commented, watching as another student glanced over at them furiously trying to stay focused in their duel and get the professors attention at the same time.

Around fifteen minutes later, the bell rang, symboling their free period before dinner.

Lance, Hunk, Pidge and Keith all met up in the courtyard, and they exchanged stories about their days before the clock chimed, symboling that dinner was about to begin.

They grabbed their bags and raced to the dining hall, ready to eat and go to bed so they could have another day of learning.

It wasn't often you saw a kid so excited about school, but those excited-to-learn faces seemed to be everywhere in the halls of Hogwarts.

 


	5. Chapter 5

The weeks went by quickly, over which Keith formed closer bonds of friendship with Hunk, Pidge, and Lance and suddenly, it was Halloween.

Students got the day off, since the teachers were busy decorating the Great Hall for the feast, so Keith, Lance, Hunk and Pidge decided to hang out in the courtyard. Hunk and Lance played wizards chess while Keith and Pidge did their potions homework from the day before.

"I swear, potions is going to be the death of me." Keith complained as he wrote down properties of Valerian Sprigs.

"Oh, quit whining, this isn't even the hard stuff yet." Pidge said, bumping shoulders with him.

"That's my point." Keith groaned.

"HA!" Lance exclaimed triumphantly, "Queen to E7!"

He puffed out his chest proudly as the piece moved, cornering Hunks king between his Queen and knight.

"Checkmate!" Lance announced, "I win!"

Hunk just pouted a bit.

"That's the fifth time today..." he muttered.

"What can I say? I've been playing wizards chess all my life, with my older siblings." Lance shrugged, setting the board up again.

Hunk got up and Lance looked at him in betrayal.

"Awe come on man! One more game?" He pleaded, looking up at Hunk with puppy dog eyes.

Pidge smirked, watching Hunk's internal struggle.

"I'll play with you Lance." The slytherin said, putting her potions notes away and moving to sit on the ground across from Lance.

Within five minutes she had his king cornered and in checkmate.

"Looks like somebody beat the self-proclaimed 'Master Of Wizards Chess'" Keith commented, his potions work long forgotten.

The clock chimed seven and they hurriedly gathered their things so they could put their stuff in their dorms before dinner.

"See you guys tomorrow!" Hunk said, racing off in the direction of the kitchens.

Pidge waved while running in the same direction as him. The kitchens _were_ in the dungeons after all.

Lance and Keith raced up to the Gryffindor common room and threw their book before getting changed into their robes and heading down to the common room to wait for the prefects to take them down.

When they finally entered the Great Hall, they gaped at the decorations. The teachers had clearly spared no expense.

The candles had been replaced with Jack-o-lanterns, and they all looked to be carved by hand, or wand. The ceiling had bats swooping through the rafters, and there were spiderwebs strung across the walls and windows. The room looked very Halloween-y, and Keith was amazed at how many tiny details he could see that couldn't be explained. The way the lights were dimmed just enough to cast bigger shadows, the way the pumpkins seemed to grin at him as he sat down.

"Damn, they don't mess around when it comes to decorating." Lance muttered in awe.

The feast passed by quickly, and they were soon headed back up the the dorms, their stomachs full to the point of bursting.

Keith barely managed to change into a sleep shirt and pants before falling into his bed and closing his eyes.

More time passed, and it was Christmas, and also time for midterms.

Keith spent Christmas at the castle, while Lance went home for the holidays.

He woke up Christmas morning to a pile of gifts at the foot of his bed. A sweater from his mom, red with a lion of course. Homemade fudge from Hunk, and knowing him he probably made it his self. A pocket sneakoscope from Pidge. A pair of fingerless gloves from Lance. And Shiro had given him a book of dueling spells, both offensive and defensive.

Keith grinned, putting on the gloves Lance had given him, along with his sweater. He grabbed his book and went down to the dining hall for breakfast. Everybody else was still in their pajamas, and those who had gotten sweaters were wearing them it seemed.

After Keith ate, he made his way down to the DADA classroom, where Shiro was grading papers at his desk.

"Thanks for the gift." Keith said, chasing Shiro to look up.

"I'm glad you like it." The older brother answered, "I assume you've come to ask me to teach you some, or supervise you as you attempt learning them?"

Keith shrugged, grinning as he saw the quill he had given Shiro on his desk.

"Maybe. Do you like your quill?" He asked, nudging the jet black quill, "It's supposed to be able to grade papers if you put the answer sheet next to the papers."

Shiro nodded.

"It's awesome, knocked probably about half an hour off of my grading time." He answered, "Now, you wanted to learn some of the spells in there, right?"

Keith nodded.

"Well, I know just the place." Shiro replied.

* * *

 

"I found this place in my fourth year, used to come here to practice my spells all the time." Shiros said, leading Keith down the seventh floor corridor, "It's the Room of Requirement. Have you heard of it?"

Keith nodded. He'd heard about how it was a room that appeared in times of need, and it provided the seeker of the room with whatever he needed at that moment.

Shiro stopped in front of a wall and laced back and forth three times, muttering quietly to himself. A door appeared and Shiro smirked.

"There we go." He nodded to nothing in particular.

"Come on!" Keith exclaimed, "Let's learn some spells!"

The room was like a training room, with dummies around the edge of the room and a blue circle in the center. There were fire extinguishers around the room, around four. There was a stack of pillows in a corner, probably for practicing things like summoning and knockback spells.

"What spell go you want to learn first?" Shiro asked, gesturing to Keith's book.

"Uh...could I learn... _Avis_?" Keith asked, opening his book to the page of the spell.

"Sure. Now, this spell is pretty difficult. It conjures bird from your wand." Shiro explained, "I want you to point at the dummy in case something goes wrong. Say 'AH-vis', don't forget to annunciations, and point your wand at that dummy."

Keith focused, and pointed his wand at the dummy, before incanting "Avis!"

A single, tiny feather drifted from his wand.

"That's good! Try again."

Keith tried over and over until a single bird erupted from his wand and landed on his finger. It was pale red, like the color had been diluted, which Shiro assured it would gain when he got better at the spell.

Keith just smiled as the little bird looked around, then spread its wings to fly. It lifted off, and to Keith horror, burst into a cloud of feathers.

"You managed to keep it a while! Since you're still learning, they won't stay for long." Shiro said, as they watched the feather float down to the ground.

"I'm gonna try again." Keith said, determined.

"One more time, then you're done. You won't master this spell in a day."

He cast it one more time, focusing as he pointed his wand at the dummy. He pictured a bird flying out of his wand.

" _Avis_!" He cast, and opened his eyes to see a bird, it's plumage bright scarlet. It sat there, preening before it flew out a window near the top of the room.

"I did it!" Keith celebrated, amazed he had actually conjured a bird.

"Good job!" Shiro congratulated, "Come on, we've been here a while and I need to get back to grading."

Keith looked at where the bird had flown out.

"Will I be able to make the birds do things when I've gotten better?" He asked.

"I imagine they'll react to your emotions and thoughts." Shiro said, "They'll probably attack for you once you've got the hang of it."

"So I could use this in a duel?"

"Not until you have complete control over the spell." Shiro warned, "We don't want you being angry and an eagle flying out instead of a sparrow."

Keith nodded seriously.

"Thanks, Shiro! I'm going to go study for my midterms a bit!" He said, racing off to the Gryffindor tower.

 


	6. Chapter 6

The rest of the year passed without a single bump in the road, and before they knew it, they were a week away from the end of the school year.

 

"Man, I'm gonna miss it here." Hunk said, looking around.

 

"Good news is it's only three short months until school starts again!" Pidge added.

 

"I'm going to miss it here, but I miss my family too." Lance muttered, "I wish Hogwarts and my family could be in the same place."

 

"Same bud." Hunk agreed.

 

"Hogwarts kinda is my home." Keith shrugged, "My moms busy with work a lot, and Shiro moved out last year, so it's usually just me at home."

 

Pidge's eyebrows furrowed.

 

"What about your dad?" She asked, then seemed to remember something, "Thestrals...oh Keith, I'm so sorry."

 

Keith didn't understand how she could tell what had happened by the fact he could see the skeletal horses, but he smiled at her.

 

"Ah, I've put it behind me. Now, who wants to see a spell I learned?" Keith asked, "Shiro showed me at Christmas and I've been practicing."

 

"Sure, let's see it." Lance said, raising an eyebrow, "Knowing you it'll be something with fire."

 

Keith had shown skills in the fire spells they had learned that year, earning Gryffindor 10 house points when he lit the braziers in the Charms room.

 

"Not this time." Keith smirked, pulling out his wand and focusing on what he wanted to conjure. He focused on the little red birds flying from his wand and cast the spell.

 

"Avis!" He cast, and around four or five small red birds flew into the air from his wand, and flew around his friend's heads.

 

Pidge raised her eyebrows.

 

"Wow, that's a really advanced spell, and you learned it as a first year? That takes skill." She complimented.

 

"Thanks!" Keith beamed, immensely proud of his little red birds.

 

The week passed quickly, and before they knew it they were back on the train home.

 

"Seems only yesterday we were in here, meeting for the first time." Hunk commented.

 

"Remember Lance having Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans for the first time?" Keith snickered.

 

"I got soap! It wasn't the best first impression of the candy!" Lance cried.

 

They laughed as Lance complained about how bad soap tasted.

 

The years passed quickly, time flying by. Keith joined the Gryffindor Quidditch team as a Seeker in his second year, and took up Care of Magical Creatures in third year. Lance chose not to try out for the Quidditch team, and he took up Divination. They both chose to stay in the Flying Class. But as stated, the years flew by, and suddenly, they were fifth years...

 

"Keith!" Lance yelled, spotting his best friends trademark mullet.

 

The boy turned and looked for Lance's voice, a smile finding its way onto his face when he saw him.

 

Keith waited as Lance made his way over, trunk in one hand and his owl, Blue, in another. They boarded the train together and found their compartment. Hunk and Pidge were prefects this year, so they had to ride in another car.

 

"Man, you won't believe how crazy my summer was." Lance started, once they had sat down and shut the compartment door.

 

Lance started talking as the train pulled away from the station, something about his baby brother showing signs of magic and accidentally blowing up his mamá's favorite vase.

 

The snack cart came by and they got their candies and a box of Bertie Bott's beans, as per their tradition. Since first year, when Lance had gotten a soap flavored bean, they had bought a box every year on the train to school.

 

Somehow, Lance always started with a bad flavor, and this year he didn't disappoint.

 

"Aaaand it's grass clipping this year." He announced, chewing on a green jelly bean and making a face.

 

Keith snickered as he passed him a cinnamon flavored bean to cut the flavor. He himself had gotten strawberry shortcake.

 

The train ride passed quickly, with only one or two of their chocolate frogs jumping out the open window before they learned their lesson and closed it.

 

The sorting ceremony included Lances younger brother, Marco, this year, who got sorted into Ravenclaw. Lance shot him a thumbs up as he walked over to his house table.

 

The feast went by just as fast and they were soon headed up to the common room. The password was 'Red Lily' this year.

 

Keith changed quickly, throwing on a pair of sleep shorts and an old shirt before letting Lion out of his cage so he could fly to the owlery. He fell into bed and closed his eyes, falling asleep immediately.

 

That night, he had a nightmare, as usual. He'd been having them a lot more since his third year at Hogwarts. Thankfully, he had solution.

 

When he had mentioned his nightmares to Lance, his friend had said he would always get his parents to help him fall back asleep. Since Keith couldn't get to his parents while he was at Hogwarts, Lance had offered to let Keith come to him.

 

It was awkward the first couple times, but now it was like a routine. Keith or Lance would have a nightmares, they would wake up, then go over to the other and lay down with them. They had gotten used to waking up in the same bed over the years, and it had lost all air of awkwardness.

 

So, once Keith had calmed himself down somewhat and steadied his breathing, he got up and walked over to Lances bed and laid down. He fell back asleep quickly after that.

 

It seemed like he was being shaken awake two seconds later.

 

"Keith. It's time to get up." Lance said, shaking his shoulder.

 

Keith groaned and rolled out of bed, blinking sleep out of his eyes.

 

They got ready and went down to breakfast, the clock chiming 7 as they walked into the Great Hall.

 

"So," Keith said, pulling out his schedule, "We've got Transfiguration first today, then Charms. Then I've got Care of Magical Creatures, and then we have Potions. Then, of course there's practice on the first day the captains crazy, I have to go to quidditch practice."

 

"Aw man, I chose Divination." Lance spoke through a mouthful of pancake.

 

Keith shrugged.

 

"Probably for the best. Don't want you getting sick of me." He teased, poking his friend in the arm.

 

"Will you two stop flirting?" Pidge asked as she sat down across from them. Her prefects badge shone against her robes, next to the Slytherin emblem that identified her house.

 

"Morning to you too, Pidge." Lance commented, somehow not choking on his food.

 

"Did you guys already compare schedules?" Pidge asked.

 

"Yeah. What're your electives?" Keith asked.

 

"Arithmancy and Divination." Pidge said, "I've got History of Magic, Charms, Divination, then Astronomy today."

 

"Cool, we have Charms together." Lance said as Hunk sat down across from him.

 

"Oh, are we comparing schedules?" Hunk asked, "I've got History of Magic, Herbology, Care of Magical Creatures and Potions."

 

"Hey, we've got Potions and Care of Magical Creatures together!" Keith said, smiling, "I finally get to see your legendary skills at potion making!"

 

The clock chimed 7:30 and Keith jumped, then hurriedly stuffed his mouth with cereal.

 

He and Lance raced off to Transfiguration while Hunk and Pidge went the other way, to History of Magic.

 

Fifth year, here we go.


	7. Chapter 7

Transfiguration started off with McGonagall greeting them back and reviewing the Transfiguration alphabet they would be using that year. The class passed by quickly, and they were off to Charms.

In Charms, as always, Flitwick simply had them read over a chapter on the spell they'd be attempting and they cast it.

The spell for today was, to Keith's delight, _Avis_.

When it came time for his turn, he cast it with ease, around five or six scarlet birds bursting out of the tip of his wand and flying around the classroom and alighting on a stack of books.

"Very good Mr. Kogane! Twenty points to Gryffindor!" Professor Flitwick cried, beaming as the scarlet birds spread their wings and flew out the open window.

Then it was time for Care of Magical Creatures.

Keith walked down to Hagrid's hut with Hunk, and found his classmates grouped near a handmade pen at the edge of the forest.

After a couple minutes, Hagrid came out of his hut, and smiled at them cheerfully. Hagrid had been his Care of Magical Creatures Professor since his second year when he started taking the class, and he was a pretty good professor, too.

"Alrigh' alrigh' settle down now class." He spoke, making his way over to them, "I've go' somethin' you lot will enjoy for today. Now, follow me."

They followed him to a makeshift pen, where Hagrid picked up some rotting meat and waved it around his head as he whistled into the forest.

Skeletal horses came trotting out, the same horses that pulled the carriages.

"Now, can anybody tell me wha' these creatures are?" Hagrid asked, turning around.

Most of the other students looked at him in confusion.

"Sir, there's nothing there." Hunk said, furrowing his eyebrows.

"What are you talking about?" Keith asked, "Can't you see them? They're like huge skeletal horses."

Hagrid nodded.

"That's righ' Keith! Do ya know what they're called?"

"No. Only that I've seen them since my first year." Keith replied, gazing at one of the horses

A couple students looked at him in pity, but he didn't understand why.

"Anybody else?" Hagrid asked, frowning when nobody raised their hand, "Alrigh' then. Today we're learnin' abou' Thestrals. Can anybody tell me why there's on'y a few o' us here who can see 'em?"

Allura raised her hand.

"They are only visible to those who have witnessed a death and accepted its reality. That's why only some of us can see them."

"Very good Allura! Ten points t' Ravenclaw!" Hagrid congratulated, "Now, who here can see the thestrals?"

Only a handful of students raised their hands, Keith and Allura being among them.

"Alrigh' then, you lot come, and each o' you come stand next to a Thestral. I wan' you to help the other students find 'em. You'll show 'em where the thestrals are, and guide their hand t' pet their necks."

Keith scrambles over to a thestral and pet its neck. The creature seemed to look at him out of the corner of its pure white eye.

"What're you looking at?" He asked, and the thestral seemed to turn its attention elsewhere.

Students came up to him and he showed them where the thestral was and helped them pet its neck.

"Alrigh' now, as a treat to you who helped in class today, who wants t' ride one of these beauts?" Hagrid asked, once everybody had gotten a chance to pet the thestrals.

Keith and Allura were the only two to step forwards.

"Alrigh' now, Keith, Allura, come o'er here and we'll get you a ride. Allura, you firs'."

Allura steppes forwards and Hagrid picked her up and placed her on the thestrals back gently. A couple students gasped at how tall the thestral seemed to be, seeing as it was larger than your average horse.

"Now, hold on tigh' to its neck, and don' let go. If you do tha', you'll be more than safe. Thestrals are pretty good at pickin' up on mental cues." Hagrid instructed before giving a 'hiyah' and a whistle. The thestral spread its wings and went for three loops around their heads before touching back down.

"Keith, now your turn. Do exactly as Allura did, hold on tigh' to its neck, don' let go. Tell the thestral wha' you wan' from it." Hagrid said, picking Keith up and placing him on the thestrals back.

The thestral was bony, as to be expected, but the bones seemed to make a sort of saddle-like seat that was actually quite comfortable. His legs rested in front of the leathery bat wings as they unfurled and he focused on what he wanted. Two loops around the pasture, one loop over the lake, then back.

With another 'hiyah' and whistle from Hagrid, the thestral took off. It was exhilarating. The wind whipped at his face as he circled twice above the pasture, and he let out a whoop as he held onto the thestral. They flew off towards the lake where he was so close to the water, he could feel the spray of the slight waves. The wind whipped through his hair and flung it all around his face, but Keith didn't care. He steadied himself and stretched out his arms to the side, closing his eyes for a moment and just enjoying the moment. Then he grabbed back on and the thestral turned back towards Hagrid's hut. He touched down a moment later, beaming. His cheeks were probably red from windburn.

After class, he was talking with Hunk as he headed up to Potions.

"Thestrals are fun but I prefer my broom." Keith commented, "It was all bony and weird, but it went so fast, almost like there was no wind resistance at all."

"I wish I could see it, but at the same time I don't" Hunk said, "If you don't mind me asking, who did you lose?"

Keith's smile faded as he answered.

"My dad. When I was six, we went to the quidditch cup, the one with the Dark Mark incident. The Death Eaters got to our tent and Shiro grabbed me and ran back to the port key. My dad died in the fires and explosions." He explained, confiding in Hunk, "I don't like to talk about it, but I trust you."

"Awe, I'm sorry man." Hunk said.

"Nah, it's fine, it's in the past, and nobody will have to deal with those evil wizards ever again." Keith said, suppressing the memory and smiling, "Are you going to do any clubs this year?"

They talked about a club Hunk had found, a club where you could cook with potions love potions being the only potion banned from the club.

"That sounds really cool, I'd like to see what you make in there." Keith commented as they sat next to Lance in potions.

"How was Care of Magical Creatures?" Lance asked, his hands behind his head as he shot a wink and a finger gun at everything that looked feminine and walked by them.

"We learned about thestrals. Keith here even got to ride one!" Hunk explained, as Lance looked at Keith, whose cheeks were still windburned.

"Could you see them?" Lance asked, "I've heard you can only see them if you've witness a death."

Keith bit his lip.

"Yeah, I could see them. I've been able to see them since first year." He muttered, even though he wasn't wanting his friend to worry. Hunk was one thing, Keith know he could confide in him and not be pressured to share more than he wanted. Lance was a different story. He was the Mom Friend and wouldn't let it rest until he had gotten as answer out of you.

"What? Who did you lose?" Lance asked.

Just then, Haggar stormed in and slammed the door to her office. She stomped up to her desk and turned sharply around to face the class, her cloak whipping behind her.

"Today we will be brewing the Draught of Peace. Open your textbooks to Page 56, where you will find the instructions. Do not test your potion when you've finished, under any circumstances. The side effects of a failed potion will cause you to fall into an irreversible sleep. we will be testing on the rats I have up here, and you will only test after I've said you may. Begin brewing."

Keith looked at his textbook and gulped when he saw how many steps there were.

**Ingredients: Powdered Moonstone, Syrup of Hellebore, Powdered Unicorn Horn, Powdered Porcupine Quills.**

Keith got up and retrieved the ingredients, before turning back to the textbook.

**Step 1: Add powdered Moonstone until the potion turns green.**

He shook the container with the powdered moonstone above the cauldron, watching the color to make sure he didn't over do it. It turned an emerald green suddenly and Keith snatched the container away from the liquid.

**Step 2: Stir until the potion turns blue.**

He stirred and the potion turned a sort of lightish dark blue.

"Seems good enough." He muttered, glancing at his textbook for the next instruction.

**Step 3: Add powdered moonstone until the potion turns purple.**

Keith followed the instructions, until he was left with a cauldron full of white potion and one step left.

He squinted at the last step, the steam coming from the other cauldrons was making the air shimmer, and he managed to make out ' **Simmer and add 7 drops of hellebore.'**

He dropped 1...2...3...4...5...6...7...drops of hellebore into the white potion and it turned a turquoise color, with the steam above shimmering a silvery color.

He simmered his potion until time was up and Haggar stalker down the rows, sneering at every mistake.

When she reached his cauldron, she peered into the potion.

"Very good, Mr. Kogane." She muttered, "5 points to Gryffindor."

Keith smirked, pleased with himself, and noticed Hunk had gotten the same result. Turquoise blue and shimmering silver. However, the Hufflepuff's potion seemed a bit brighter turquoise, and the silvery shimmer sparkled a bit more.

"Perfect, Mr. Garrett. 15 points to Hufflepuff." Haggar grumbled, prowling onto the next potion.

Lance stared in dismay at his dark olive green potion as it bubbled and gave off a smell like dirty socks.

"How are you two so good at Potions and yet, I'm _so bad?_ " Lance groaned. His potion had earned a sneer from Haggar and her quickly moving on.

"I just followed the instructions to the letter." Keith shrugged.

"I've always been good with Potions." Hunk commented.

"Yeah, yeah...let me wallow in peace." Lance grumbled.

Keith and hunk shared a glance as the bell rang and they were dismissed. They came to a silent agreement.

"No can do buddy!" Hunk grinned, after getting up. He lifted Lance by his armpits and Keith grabbed his legs so they were holding him above their heads and they paraded out of the classroom, to find a very amused cackling Pidge.

"C'mon guys! Put me down!" Lance laughed from where he was held aloft.

"If you say so." Keith smirked before promptly dropping Lances legs, as hunk dropped his front half.

Lance landed in a heap on the floor, and Keith took off down the hallway (after seeing that the former was okay), cackling like a madman the whole time.

"That is not what I meant and you know it! Keith! Get back here!" Lance shrieked as he scrambled up and chased after his friend down the corridor.

Hunk and Pidge just watched with amusement.

"10 sickles says by Christmas." Pidge whispered to Hunk.

"I'll take that bet." Hunk replied, "I say it'll be just before finals."

"You're on."


	8. Chapter 8

Lance leaned his head back against Keith's shoulder as he groaned for the fifteenth time in an hour.

"Do we _have_ to take midterms?" He asked, loooking back down at his study materials.

Keith turned his head slightly towards his friend.

"Yes."

"I was afraid you were going to say that." Lance mumbled.

The two were in the library, studying for their upcoming midterm exams. They were sitting back to back with a large pile of books on either side of them, and each had a book open in their lap, along with unfinished study notes.

It had snowed earlier that day, and Lance was itching to go outside and play in the snow, but _noooooooo,_ Keith and he _had_ to study.

"Can we study later?" Lance whined, setting down his parchment and quill to gaze longingly out the window, "I wanna play in the snow."

"Let's finish this page of study notes, then we can go outside." Keith compromised, turning to look at Lance, "Deal?"

"Deal!" Lance sat up quickly and scribbled very haphazardly on his page, his words looking more like squiggles than actual sentences.

They finished in another 30 minutes and packed their things in their bags.

"Now can we go outside?" Lance asked.

"We don't have our hats or scarfs, and do you _really_ want to bring our bags outside?" Keith raised an eyebrow at his friend.

Lance grumbled, his bottom lips coming out in a pout.

"Fine." He perked up again, "Come on then!"

He grabbed Keith's wrist and dragged him out of the library, off in the direction of Gryffindor Tower.

Lance hurled his bag at his bed when they got to their dorm, and started throwing his things out of his trunk in search for his sweater, hat, and scarf. Meanwhile, Keith put his bag down more gently than Lance had, and found his warmer clothes quicker.

"Okay! Now come on! Let's go!" Lance said, excitedly when he had successfully located all his things.

Lances excitement was infectious, causing Keith to laugh as his friend grabbed his wrist once again to drag him outside.

Once outside, Lance breathed in the cold air with a smile. He closed his eyes and Keith smirked, glancing around to scan for teachers before pulling out his wand.

" _Wingardium Leviosa!_ " He whispered pointing at the snow. A clump of snow lifted itself off the ground and Keith directed it above Lance's head.

He smirked as Lance opened his eyes and turned towards him, his eyebrows furrowing when he saw Keith's face. His eyes flickered to the wand pointed above his head, and before Lance could move, Keith let go of the spell, cackling.

The clump of snow dropped into Lances face and when it fell away he was wearing a devilish grin.

"So that's how you want to play it, is it?" Lance said, leaning down and picking up a ball of snow, "Get ready, cause you just waged war on the King of Snowball Fights!"

Keith started to backpedal to run away, and promptly got a face full of snow.

"They don't call me Sharpshooter for nothing!" Lance boasted.

A snowball hit his chest seconds later.

"Oh it's on now!"

Keith just cackled from where he was already pushing snow into a makeshift wall. Lance quickly set to work on building the exact same thing. Then, snowballs flew. They pelted each other with the snow relentlessly, only pausing to make more snowballs. In the end, they were both drenched with melted snow, and wiping their runny noses as they shivered in the cold.

"Tie?" Lance asked.

"Tie." Keith confirmed, and they turned and ran inside, back to the common room, where they drank hot cocoa, sat by the fire, and studied for the rest of the day.

~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~

"My brain hurts." Lance whines as they walked out of their last midterm, Transfiguration, "Why do we even have to memorize the Transfiguration alphabet anyways? It's not like we'll actually _use_ it."

"Cause it'll help now?" Keith shrugged, "All I know is that I'm ready for dinner, and when my head hits the pillow it'll be lights out."

Lance grunted in agreement, dragging his feet as they shuffled to the Great Hall.

~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~

That night, Keith had a nightmare. It wasn't like the rest of, all of those were the random nonsense your brain makes up to scare you.

This one, it felt real.

He was walking along a corridor, his wand lighting the way. He turned a corner and there was a flash of red light and everything went dark.

He woke up, sweating and panting as he processed and tried to figure out what it meant. That he was going to be attacked? Don't go into dark corridors alone?

Lance sat up in the bed next to him.

"Hey, you okay, Keith?" He whispered.

Keith shook his head and Lance tiptoed over to his bed, and climbed in.

"Nightmare?" He asked, sitting beside his friend.

Keith nodded, starting to calm down.

"No worries, I'm here."

With that, they laid down and eventually fell asleep.

~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~

Keith woke up first the next morning and registered something restricting the movement of his arm. He turned his head and saw Lance cuddling it like a teddy bear, and smiled softly.

After a few moments of just simply laying there, watching Lance sleep, he realized how weird it was to stare. I mean, they weren't dating or anything and that was usually considered an intimate thing, not something two nightmare buddies did.

He quickly turned away and got out of bed, feeling his face heat up.

He didn't _like_ Lance, did he?

~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~

Keith folded his arms as he leaned against the wall and watched his classmates duel in the courtyard.

"Alright." Shiro stepped into the circle once the two students dueling had finished, "Who wants to go next?"

Nobody stepped forwards. Pretty much everybody had gone.

"Okay then. Keith, Lance. You two come duel." Shiro said, pointing at them both and gesturing for them to step into the circle.

Keith pushes away from the wall and walked to the circle, and turned to face his friend.

"Ready to lose, McClain?" He asked, smirking.

"Aw, but you'll go easy on your friend, right?"

They stood back to back and stepped away from each other, then turned, wands ready.

"Three, two, one, Begin!" Shiro announced as he stood to the side.

" _Rictumsempra_!" Keith cast, and Lance fell backwards, the wind knocked out of him.

" _Expelliarmus!"_ Lance exclaimed in relataliation.

Keith simply blocked it, and cast the jelly-fingers jinx.

Lances fingers went limp and he dropped his wand and struggled to lick it up again.

" _Petrificus Totalus!_ " Keith cast, and Lance went rigid, falling beside his wand still in his crouched position.

"Keith wins this mock duel." Shiro announced, performing the counter-curse to unfreeze Lance and put his fingers back to normal.

"Remember, next week we will be starting to learn Patronus Charms, so be sure and study up on them, and work on finding your happiest memory to use! Class dismissed." Shiro said, and the class grabbed their bags.

Keith still hadn't found a memory he thought was strong enough for a Patronus. He had gone through them all: Christmas with his mom and dad, gettinghus Hogwarts letter, getting Lion, being sorted into the same house as Shiro, Shiro mock dueling him when they were younger, working on his dads bike with him when he was younger, going through an old photo album with his mom last summer, learning to ride a motorcycle from Shiro, his mom giving him his dads old motorcycle gloves before school, catching his first Snitch, etc.

None of the memories had that feeling that it would be strong enough. Maybe he'd use the motorcycle gloves memory, or the first Snitch one, those were the strongest.

He didn't remember his dad very well, and any sort of way to feel closer to him was important to him, so the fact he could wear his dads old gloves felt like he was carrying a piece of him everywhere he went.

"How do you always beat me?" Lance groaned, falling in step with Keith as they walked down to the dining hall, "You'd think I would have learned your tricks by now."

Keith flashed an absolutely shit-eating grin.

"Maybe I'm just too good." He teased, "I mean, I _do_ practice a lot."

"You always say that, it I've never once seen you practicing. Never. And we've been roommates for five years!" Lance exclaimed, throwing his arms up in the air, "It's like you've got a secret room or someth–" Lance interrupted himself, "No way. Did you find the Room of Requirement?"

The shit-eating grin made another appearance.

"Possibly. It's also possible a certain professor showed it to me in first year while all of my friends were at their family's for Christmas." Keith shrugged, enjoying watching Lance's face of betrayal.

" _First year!?_ You found that room, well no, Shiro showed you that room in _first year_ and you're only just now telling me?"

"Yeah, sounds about right." Keith replied, laughing as Lance shoved him to the side.

"Why didn't you tell me?! You could've at least showed me some spells in that cool dueling book you have!"

"Nothing's stopping you from following me when I go." Keith commented.

"Alright then I'm coming with you next time you go, and there's nothing you can do about it!" Lance proclaimed, crossing his arms, "Promise not to go without me next time?"

"Fine, I guess." Keith sighed, laughing when Lance shoved him again.

~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~

Keith stood in front of the dummy in Defense Against the Dark Arts class the next week, wand in front of him. He focused on his memory of receiving his dads gloves, and cast the spell.

" _Expecto Patronum!"_

A faint silvery wisp floated out of his wand, like steam. His heart sank; of course the memory wasn't strong enough.

"That's really good, Keith! Try a stronger memory next time, and I'm sure you'll get it." Shiro encouraged, waving him to the back to the next student could take their turn.

Keith leaned against the wall, crossing his arms and watching as his peers cast the Patronus charm. There was a soft thud as Lance flopped against the wall next to him.

"Bad luck with your patronus?" Lance asked.

"Yeah. You?" Keith replied.

"Same."

"I was thinking of practicing it during free period, before Quidditch practice. You down?"

"Hell yeah! You promised to show me the Room of Requirement anyways."

"See you then. Free period is after next class right? Meet me in the common room."

"See you then."

Shiro announced class was dismissed just then, and the two boys split paths, Keith heading to Care of Magical Creatures while Lance went to Divination.

Care of Magical Creatures passed without a hitch, except for a kid dropping his Bowtruckle on the ground, and said Bowtruckle stabbing the poor kid in the foot before running back to the tree where it stayed the rest of the lesson. The kid was fine, his foot was fixed with a simple wave of a wand.

Keith made his way to the common room as soon as Hagrid announced they were dismissed.

He found Lance sitting in front of the fire, reading something for Divination homework.

"You ready to see the Room of Requirement?" Keith asked as he walked up to Lance.

Lance looked up and beamed when he processed what Keith had said.

"You bet."

"Let me go put my bag away, then we can go."

And with that, Keith started leading Lance to where the hidden room was.

 


	9. Chapter 9

Keith and Lance practically ran through the corridors to get to the Room of Requirement as fast as possible, Keith so he'd have the most time to practice, Lance so he could see the Room as soon as possible.

Keith suddenly stopped in front of a wall, and started pacing, with Lance looking in in confusion. A door started to melt into shape on the wall and Lance started in amazement.

"Well, come on!" Lance cried, grabbing Keith's wrist and dragging him inside.

As soon as he stepped inside he stared in amazement and awe.

The room had pillows and training dummies and all sorts of things to learn spells. There was a bookcase in one corner, probably full of books on spells and charms. It didn't look like much but to Lance, it was incredible.

"This is awesome! Keith, seriously man, why didn't you show me this sooner?"

"Didn't think it was that big a deal." Keith shrugged, walking over to push a dummy out from the corner. It was covered in a black, torn rag, and it vaguely resembled a Dementor.

"Did you set that up or was it already here?" Lance asked, poking the cloth with his wand.

"I've been practicing for probably around two weeks, trying to find a memory that's happy enough for a decent Patronus charm." Keith explained, "Nothing's been strong enough so far."

Lance beamed at him, and Keith had an odd feeling that his insides were melting, but in a good way.

"I'm sure you'll get it! Now, let's see what I can do!"

Lance shut his eyes, most likely focusing on a memory.

_"Expecto Patronum!"_ He cast, aiming his wand at the Dementor dummy, and giving a victorious ' _yesss!_ ' when a silvery steam floated out of his wand.

"Ok, now my turn." Keith said, pulling his wand out of his pocket. He closed his eyes and focused, thinking 'what would be my happiest memory?'.

He realized something, his eyes snapping open with his thought. What if he made up a memory? He shut his eyes again and thought hard.

His dad. He could picture him and his dad together, his dad helping him with his DADA spells, which he had been told were always what he was best at.

" _Expecto Patronum!_ " He exclaimed, and a cloud of silver steam erupted out of his wand, like a shield in front of him.

He beamed, laughing a bit. It wasn't much, but it would protect him against a Dementor if the need arose.

"Dang, you got it!" Lance congratulated, "You found a memory that was strong enough?"

Keith's smile faltered.

"Not exactly a memory. More of a wish." He admitted, crossing his arms and curling into himself.

"Ooo that's cool." Lance said, then came the dreaded question, "What did you think of?"

Keith hesitates, but answered, keeping his answer as vague as possible.

"My dad."

Lance tilted his head, oblivious to Keith's body language and his obvious uncomfortableness with the question.

"What about your dad?"

"Why don't you try again and see if you can find a stronger memory?" Keith quickly spoke, dodging Lance's question.

Lance cast a worried glance at his friend, but turned to try the spell again. A topic for another time.

Meanwhile, Keith trudged over to the pile of pillows and collapsed into them, suddenly realizing how tired he was after conjuring his Patronus shield and also wanting to avoid Lance for fear of more prodding questions.

He didn't usually share about his family, and even when he did he didn't share much. It just wasn't natural to him, talking about family unless he was talking to his family itself.

Lance flopped down next to him, sighing.

"It's no use, I can't get the stupid spell to _work_. We've got to at least produce a shield, right? In order to say we've learned the spell? But it's extra credit if we can manage corporeal, and lets be honest I could use the extra credit." Lance rambled, oblivious as to how Keith had suddenly gotten an idea and stared at his wand in a daze, "I mean it's not like we can actually make a corporeal patronus in year 6, is it? Are there some people who can do that? I mean I know Harry Potter produced a corporeal patronus at age 13, but let's be honest, he's a damn good wizard to have defeated You-Know-Who at 17, right? Anyways–"

"Lance shut up I have an idea." Keith interrupted, still staring at his wand.

He got up and walked over to the dummy, then thought of his chosen memory, and cast the spell.

_"Expecto Patronum!"_

A silvery wisp shout out of his wand and then shot towards the ground, a cloud of silver steam gathering around the distinct form of...

"A wolf? Man, your patronus is so cool!" Lance complimented, looking at the silver wolf as it paced around and eventually dissipated, "How'd you do it?"

Keith was still staring in shock where the wolf had been standing, his cheeks pink. He definitely didn't expect that to work.

"Keith? Keith. Helloooo, earth to Keith!"

Keith blinked and looked at Lance, still dazed from his shock, and drained from the exertion to maintain the spell.

"You don't look too good buddy, maybe you should sit down." Lance said nervously, reaching for Keith's elbow to help him to the pillows.

"I'm fine." Keith snapped, snatching his elbow away and stalking off to the opposite corner from the pillows, where he collapsed into an armchair with his spell book.

"Wow. That must've really drained him." Lance muttered to himself as he turned back to the dummy to try the spell again.

After around fifteen tries, it still wasn't working. Lance almost threw his wand, but decided instead to fire an exploding charm at a different dummy.

"Try thinking of the person who makes you happiest instead of a single memory. Wrap all those memories into one and picture the person in all of those memories." Keith suddenly spoke.

Lance had almost forgotten he was here. Maybe that's what baffled Keith, he must've thought of a person, and he hadn't expected them to produce a memory that strong.

He turned back to the dummy, and closed his eyes concentrating. He thought of all his fondest memories: cooking Thanksgiving lies with Mamá, building snowmen with Luis and Veronica, helping Papá build the playset in their backyard. He thought if his family and envisioned every memory he had of them together.

_"Expecto Patronum!"_ He cast, watching in amazement as a silvery streak shot out of his wand and flew around the room, like it was...swimming. The cloud of silvery steam parted to reveal Lances patronus.

"I got a dolphin! Man, this is awesome!" Lance cried, making Keith turn to see Lances patronus swim-flying around the latter as he laughed. It dove into the ground and disappeared.

"Thanks, man! Never would've gotten it if you didn't help me." Lance beamed at him.

And Keith's insides turned to mush.

This wasn't good.


	10. Chapter 10

Keith and Lance practically ran through the corridors to get to the Room of Requirement as fast as possible, Keith so he'd have the most time to practice, Lance so he could see the Room as soon as possible.

Keith suddenly stopped in front of a wall, and started pacing, with Lance looking in in confusion. A door started to melt into shape on the wall and Lance started in amazement.

"Well, come on!" Lance cried, grabbing Keith's wrist and dragging him inside.

As soon as he stepped inside he stared in amazement and awe.

The room had pillows and training dummies and all sorts of things to learn spells. There was a bookcase in one corner, probably full of books on spells and charms. It didn't look like much but to Lance, it was incredible.

"This is awesome! Keith, seriously man, why didn't you show me this sooner?"

"Didn't think it was that big a deal." Keith shrugged, walking over to push a dummy out from the corner. It was covered in a black, torn rag, and it vaguely resembled a Dementor.

"Did you set that up or was it already here?" Lance asked, poking the cloth with his wand.

"I've been practicing for probably around two weeks, trying to find a memory that's happy enough for a decent Patronus charm." Keith explained, "Nothing's been strong enough so far."

Lance beamed at him, and Keith had an odd feeling that his insides were melting, but in a good way.

"I'm sure you'll get it! Now, let's see what I can do!"

Lance shut his eyes, most likely focusing on a memory.

 _"Expecto Patronum!"_ He cast, aiming his wand at the Dementor dummy, and giving a victorious ' _yesss!_ ' when a silvery steam floated out of his wand.

"Ok, now my turn." Keith said, pulling his wand out of his pocket. He closed his eyes and focused, thinking 'what would be my happiest memory?'.

He realized something, his eyes snapping open with his thought. What if he made up a memory? He shut his eyes again and thought hard.

His dad. He could picture him and his dad together, his dad helping him with his DADA spells, which he had been told were always what he was best at.

" _Expecto Patronum!_ " He exclaimed, and a cloud of silver steam erupted out of his wand, like a shield in front of him.

He beamed, laughing a bit. It wasn't much, but it would protect him against a Dementor if the need arose.

"Dang, you got it!" Lance congratulated, "You found a memory that was strong enough?"

Keith's smile faltered.

"Not exactly a memory. More of a wish." He admitted, crossing his arms and curling into himself.

"Ooo that's cool." Lance said, then came the dreaded question, "What did you think of?"

Keith hesitates, but answered, keeping his answer as vague as possible.

"My dad."

Lance tilted his head, oblivious to Keith's body language and his obvious uncomfortableness with the question.

"What about your dad?"

"Why don't you try again and see if you can find a stronger memory?" Keith quickly spoke, dodging Lance's question.

Lance cast a worried glance at his friend, but turned to try the spell again. A topic for another time.

Meanwhile, Keith trudged over to the pile of pillows and collapsed into them, suddenly realizing how tired he was after conjuring his Patronus shield and also wanting to avoid Lance for fear of more prodding questions.

He didn't usually share about his family, and even when he did he didn't share much. It just wasn't natural to him, talking about family unless he was talking to his family itself.

Lance flopped down next to him, sighing.

"It's no use, I can't get the stupid spell to _work_. We've got to at least produce a shield, right? In order to say we've learned the spell? But it's extra credit if we can manage corporeal, and lets be honest I could use the extra credit." Lance rambled, oblivious as to how Keith had suddenly gotten an idea and stared at his wand in a daze, "I mean it's not like we can actually make a corporeal patronus in year 6, is it? Are there some people who can do that? I mean I know Harry Potter produced a corporeal patronus at age 13, but let's be honest, he's a damn good wizard to have defeated You-Know-Who at 17, right? Anyways–"

"Lance shut up I have an idea." Keith interrupted, still staring at his wand.

He got up and walked over to the dummy, then thought of his chosen memory, and cast the spell.

_"Expecto Patronum!"_

A silvery wisp shout out of his wand and then shot towards the ground, a cloud of silver steam gathering around the distinct form of...

"A wolf? Man, your patronus is so cool!" Lance complimented, looking at the silver wolf as it paced around and eventually dissipated, "How'd you do it?"

Keith was still staring in shock where the wolf had been standing, his cheeks pink. He definitely didn't expect that to work.

"Keith? Keith. Helloooo, earth to Keith!"

Keith blinked and looked at Lance, still dazed from his shock, and drained from the exertion to maintain the spell.

"You don't look too good buddy, maybe you should sit down." Lance said nervously, reaching for Keith's elbow to help him to the pillows.

"I'm fine." Keith snapped, snatching his elbow away and stalking off to the opposite corner from the pillows, where he collapsed into an armchair with his spell book.

"Wow. That must've really drained him." Lance muttered to himself as he turned back to the dummy to try the spell again.

After around fifteen tries, it still wasn't working. Lance almost threw his wand, but decided instead to fire an exploding charm at a different dummy.

"Try thinking of the person who makes you happiest instead of a single memory. Wrap all those memories into one and picture the person in all of those memories." Keith suddenly spoke.

Lance had almost forgotten he was here. Maybe that's what baffled Keith, he must've thought of a person, and he hadn't expected them to produce a memory that strong.

He turned back to the dummy, and closed his eyes concentrating. He thought of all his fondest memories: cooking Thanksgiving lies with Mamá, building snowmen with Luis and Veronica, helping Papá build the playset in their backyard. He thought if his family and envisioned every memory he had of them together.

 _"Expecto Patronum!"_ He cast, watching in amazement as a silvery streak shot out of his wand and flew around the room, like it was...swimming. The cloud of silvery steam parted to reveal Lances patronus.

"I got a dolphin! Man, this is awesome!" Lance cried, making Keith turn to see Lances patronus swim-flying around the latter as he laughed. It dove into the ground and disappeared.

"Thanks, man! Never would've gotten it if you didn't help me." Lance beamed at him.

And Keith's insides turned to mush.

This wasn't good.


	11. Chapter 11

Lance didn't understand why, but ever since the day they finally produced a corporeal patronus in the Room of Requirement, Keith had been avoiding him like the plague.

"Keith!" He called after Charms one day.

Keith bolted.

What? Did he say something? Did somebody _else_ say something? Did something happen?

_Meanwhile, in Keith's mind..._

"Keith!" Lance called after him as he walked down the hall away from Charms.

He bolted. His fight or flight instinct screwed him over majorly sometimes. He ran down the halls, turning left and right and right and left and right and left and going straight and right and up and up and left and ending up at the empty wall that hid the Room of Requirement. He paced, not focusing on anything in particular just knowing _he had to figure this out_. A door appeared and he practically threw it open and slammed the door behind him, his breathing quick.

He looked around the room and saw it was different from last time. It had a bed in the corner and it basically looked like a secret room where he could stay if it became too much.

There was a Pensieve in the corner, sitting atop a small pedestal. The room must have provided it, maybe it was left. Whatever, the room was saying he could use it. Maybe going over memories would help him figure stuff out.

He had no idea how to access his own memories and he didn't want to try, but it looked like there were already memories for him to look at. Well, the room did always provide what you needed, and he doubted somebody would just leave their memories here, where anybody could see them.

He put his face into the liquid and immediately felt the tumbling sensation of falling into the memories.

He was standing in a house, watching as his mom taught him flash cards, she was currently showing him the one for hippo. Baby Keith giggled and laughed, making grabby hands at a stuffed hippo nearby.

"Hippo!" His younger self said, his first word.

The memory changed and the scene shifted to a playground he didn't recognize. His younger self was playing with his hippo in the sand box, and his mom watched from the side. Then, a small fire lit in front of him. His mom immediately moved and put out the fire, and picked him up to go home.

The scene changed again, and it was Keith getting his letter and his mom beaming and taking him to Diagon Alley.

Then it was Keith getting his wand, after several tries ending in boxes flying off the walls, he finally found a wand that fit: Pine wood, Dragon Heartstring core, 10 1/2 inches, and average flexibility. When he had waved it, there had been a deep feeling of correctness in his gut.

He pulled his face out of the Pensieve, since that was the last memory.

Why did the room show him this? Why was it important? _Was_ it important? He didn't think it had anything to do with what he had been thinking about...

He looked around and eventually sat down on the bed, thinking. He didn't have anymore classes today, so he didn't have to worry about that, all he had to worry about was Lance trying to find him.

Or...would it be worse to know Lance _wasn't_ trying to find him? Did he feel bad for running from Lance? Hell yeah, he felt awful, but he couldn't talk to Lance right now, not if his insides melted into mush every time the boy so much as smiled at him.

"What's wrong with me?" Keith muttered to the empty room, holding his head in his hands.

He heard a noise and looked up with a start as the door started to appear, meaning somebody was coming in.

He sat there, frozen as the door opened, revealing Lance, who looked relieved when he saw Keith.

"Hey man, are you okay? You've been acting pretty weird." Lance asked, walking over and sitting down next to him.

"I...yeah. Yeah I'm fine." Keith lied, getting up, "Just have a lot on my mind."

He ran a hand through his hair, then let it drop as he turned back to Lance.

"I... I don't know what's going on with me, and I'm just trying to figure this absolute mess out." He continued, starting to pace now, "Sorry if I've been avoiding you, or acting weird around you. I think I've figured some of it out though, and I guess it makes sense now."

"Nah, it's cool man. I get it. Sometimes people just become overwhelming, it happens to everybody. There was a time when I was younger -"

"I think I'm gay." Keith blurted, speaking the thought that had been on his mind all week and immediately regretting it, "I mean...shit."

He started pacing again, wanting nothing more than to run again, but also wanting to hear Lances reaction, and knowing that even if he ran Lance would find him eventually. They shared a dorm after all.

"Cool. When'd you realize?" Lance asked casually.

Keith felt his ears go warm, as he thought about it.

_Last week. When your smile transfigured my insides to butterflies_.

But of course he couldn't say that.

_Please let this be a small thing, don't let it ruin our friendship_.

"I don't know, I guess when I realized I was only ever attracted to guys?" He stammered, his face now completely red.

"Cool. By the way, I'm like 75% sure I'm Bi." Lance added, giving him finger guns, "I guess we really do travel in packs."

"Rad." Keith said, not really knowing what to say, "So, uh...are we cool now?"

Lance raised as eyebrow.

"Depends on if you're cool."

"Okay then, we're cool."


	12. Chapter 12

Keith was walking down a corridor, his wand lit in his hand. He patrolled down the corridor and when he turned he saw Shiro, also patrolling. Shiro didn't see him, even though he was looking right at him.

A bright flash of red light came from behind his brother, and Shiros eyes widened before he collapsed from the stun spell.

"Shiro!" He tried to move towards him, but he was stuck.

"Yes, I think this one will do nicely." A voice said from an unseeable source.

Another flash of red light and Keith darted upright in his bed.

"Shiro." He muttered, "It was just a dream."

He rolled over and fell back asleep a couple minutes later. He slept fitfully, red flashes replaying in his mind all night.

The next morning, he had Defense Against the Dark Arts first. He walked in and sat down, And immediately noticed something was off. Shiro wasn't sitting in his normal seat, at the desk in front of the class. The door to his study was closed and he always had it open before class if he was in there.

Once everybody had arrived, a substitute walked in.

_Where's Shiro._

Keith raised his hand.

"Yes, Mr. Kogane." The substitute said, "Did you have a question?"

"Where's Professor Shirogane?"

"He's caught the flu and won't be teaching until he recovers."

_Bullshit. Shiro never gets sick, and even when he does he still teaches. He never takes sick days._

"Sir, with all due respect, I've never known my brother to take a sick day." Keith said, "Even for the flu."

"Well he's taken a sick day now. If you interrupt again I'll have to take points from your house." The substitute snapped, and Keith huffed but was silent the rest of class.

"My brother has never gotten sick, at least not that he's shown. Meaning he never takes a sick day unless somethings wrong." Keith whispered to Lance, "Somethings wrong."

"I don't know. He could just have the flu, like the sub said."

"You don't know him like I do. Even if he had the dragon pox, he would put himself in a hazmat suit and teach the class wearing that." Keith said, "He wouldn't ever take a sick day unless something was wrong."

"Mr. Kogane, Mr. McClain! 5 points from Gryffindor. Please pay attention in class." The substitute scolded.

Three days passed, and Keith still hadn't seen Shiro.

Then the announcement came.

_"All students are to stay away from the Forbidden Forest, and if they see anything suspicious, report it to your head of house immediately!"_

A week passed. Another student disappeared. Pidge's brother, Matt.

Two weeks. Glowing eyes were seen lurking at the edge of the woods. Keith and Pidge got detention for trying to sneak to the woods.

One month had passed since Shiro disappeared.

"Keith, Buddy, you've got to eat. If you don't eat you'll starve!" Lance chided.

"I'm not hungry." Keith grumbled.

"But you need -"

"I said I'm NOT HUNGRY!" Keith snapped, slamming his hands on the table, "So back off, will you?"

The entire Hall went silent, everybody staring at Keith, who had stood up and was glaring at Lance.

Lance opened his mouth to say something, but faltered and closed it again. He seemed to shrink into himself and started picking at his eggs.

Keith turned and glared at everybody staring at him, then stormed out of the Great Hall, silently cursing his temper.

 _'Why the_ hell _did I yell at Lance? Lance is my best friend_ _...secret crush...whatever_ _and he was only trying to help! Now, on top of Shiro missing, I've yelled at my_ _him_ _and probably made him feel awful! He was only trying to help!_ God _, I'm a_ fucking idiot _.'_

He was so lost in thought, he didn't realize where he was until he looked up and saw he had walked right to the entrance of the Room of Requirement.

He sighed and paced and the room opened to show him his practicing space.

He flopped into a beanbag and ran his fingers through his bangs as he closed his eyes and mentally swore.

"I am _such_ a _bloody idiot_."

"Yeah, you kinda are sometimes."

Keith sat up and looked around for who had spoken, and saw Lance standing there.

"How long have you been there?"

"Around a minute. Walked in right after you. Heard you muttering." Lance shrugged. His body language gave off a cool air of indifference that Keith recognized. It was Lance hiding his emotions, his defense mechanism.

There was silence for one, two, three beats.

"I'm sorry for yelling at you. That was a stupid thing to do, I'm not even mad at you I just-" Keith, sighed and rambled on, "I'm so _frustrated_ that the school is keeping the fact that Shiro is missing, along with Matt, hushed up! They should at least report it or do _something_ about it, not just cross their names off the staff and student list and hire a substitute! At least they could tell us what happened but no! I'm kept in the dark, Pidge doesn't know where her brother is, and I'm _FUCKING DONE_!"

Keith was pacing now, and Lance had decided to sit down on another beanbag, watching him with wide eyes.

"I half want to go marching down to the Forbidden Forest to search for him but I don't have any way to know if he's even still on school grounds! Let alone..." he trailed off, not wanting to finish the thought.

"We could always sneak into his office." Lance suggested.

Keith turned to look at Lance.

"What would we get from that?"

"Might give us a clue about where he's disappeared off too. Could tell us if he's just taken an extended holiday."

"He's been kidnapped. I know that."

"How though?" Lance asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I had a dream the day before he disappeared. Like a vision."

"And you're just now mentioning it?!" Lance exclaimed, eyes even wider, "Do you remember anything from it?"

Keith thought.

"Uh...a flash of red light? And I was observing, it wasn't happening to me."

"Well that's helpful. I suppose this is why dream journals are good."

"I remember another person being there, but I can't remember what they said. Or if I ever saw what they looked like."

"That must be Shiro's kidnapper. If only we could like, take out the memory and analyze it."

Keith stopped pacing, and stared at nothing in particular as he thought. He walked briskly towards a shelf and reached up, searching for something.

"You need some help there, bud?" Lance asked.

"No, it should be right...ah! Got it."

He turned around with a Pensieve in his hand and he let the disk float in front of him.

"Holy shit. Is that a Pensieve? Those are pretty rare, right?" Lance asked, getting up from the beanbag and walking over, "I've heard they're pretty dangerous to use too, if you don't know what you're doing."

"Yeah, but the Room Of Requirement must think I need a way to reflect cause it always has one when I come here." Keith mentioned, "I don't know exactly how to get my memories out yet, but I'm working on it. The Room is teaching me, leaving spellbooks on it and stuff. For now, I have to depend on it providing the memories I need."

"That's...pretty cool to be honest. Know where the usable memories are?"

"Yeah, the Room has a copy of my vision thing somewhere here. On that shelf." Keith pointed to a shelf with around two dozen labeled bottles.

"Wow. I guess you really do need to reflect." Lance said, walking over and beginning to search, "Aren't you worried about other people finding these?"

"Yeah. I half wanted to take them with me when I left the first time, but I'm sure they'd disappear if somebody were to come in without me. I don't think the Room of Requirement would give up your personal stuff like that unless you wanted it to." Keith said, picking up a bottle that read ' **Childhood: Hippo** ' before putting it back.

"Is this it?" Lance asked, holding up a bottle that read ' **Vision: Shiro Kidnapping** '

"Yeah, That should be it." Keith nodded, taking the bottle carefully and uncorking it before pouring it into the Pensieve.

He glanced at Lance before looking back at the silvery liquid.

"Ready?" He asked.

Lance nodded, "You wanna do this together?"

Keith shrugged, tying back his hair so it wouldn't fall into the liquid.

"Wouldn't hurt. It'd be easier than telling you."

"Okay. On three."

"One."

Lance glanced at Keith.

"Two."

Keith took a deep breath before saying the next number.

"Three."

They lowered their faces to the Pensieve and the world went white as Keith felt the odd sensation of falling. He touched down into the memory and saw himself, but it was his dream self. He turned and saw Lance next to him.

"This is weird." Lance said, his voice sounding like it came through a layer of plastic.

"Come on, around this corner." Keith motioned at Lance and they crept forwards towards where Dream Keith was coming to a stop.

Red light flashed when they got to the corner and they watched as Shiro fell.

A voice came from nowhere, drawling its words as if it was pleased.

"Yes, I think this one will do nicely."

Then the memory abruptly changed, and they saw Dream Keith sitting up in his bed, breathing rapidly, in a panicked way. He muttered to himself a bit and took deep breaths before the memory melted away and they stood up into the real world again.

"So that was a vision of Shiro getting kidnapped. And a strange voice that most likely belongs to his kidnapper. I wish we could've seen his face, that would've helped, but we could start by looking near where Shiro was captured?" Lance said, pacing, "I saw the picture of the three ladies, that's near the Greenhouses."

"So are we gonna sneak out tonight? Go looking for clues that might help us find Shiro?"

"If you want."

"Then let's do it. Tonight, at midnight we go looking for Shiro."

 


	13. Chapter 13

That night, Keith didn't sleep. He stared at the ceiling, waiting for the clocktower to chime twelve, even though he set an alarm for midnight. He waited and waited, as all the possible scenarios that could happen while looking for Shiro player in his mind.

The clock tower chimed and Keith counted.

1...  
2...  
3...  
4...  
5...  
6...  
7...  
8...  
9...  
10...

Silence.

Two hours.

Two hours more of imagining what could go wrong, or of dreading what he and Lance will find.

Holy shit that's right, he was going to be alone, in the dark, with Lance. Sneaking out.

_Nope, stop, no getting your hopes up dumbass._ _You only feel this nervous because of Shiro._

He took a deep breath.

Two hours.

After going over every good and bad thing that could happen, it was finally midnight.

Keith got out of bed and turned off the alarm so it wouldn't wake anybody else up, since he was already up. He tiptoed over to Lances bed and shook him awake.

"Lance, c'mon wake up. We've got to go now." He whispered, poking him in the ribs when shaking him didn't work.

"Mmmph, five more minutes..." Lance groaned, rolling over and away from Keith.

"C'mon, wake up idiot." Keith poked him in the ribs again as he smirked fondly.

"Estoy despierto Mamí." Lance grumbled, furrowing his eyebrows, "Dame un segundo..."

"Lance." Keith pokes him in the ribs harder this time, "Get. Up."

"¡Estoy despierto!" Lance day upright in bed, his eyes wide as he tried to adjust to the pitch black darkness, "Jeez, is it midnight already?"

"A couple minutes after actually, cause you're very hard to wake up." Keith crosses his arms, "Are we gonna go or not?"

"Alright, Alright." Lance yawned, still blinking his eyes and trying to see, "Let me get my wand and a coat and we can go."

Ten minutes later, both boys had their wands in hand, and were wearing slippers and a coat each.

"Alright, lets go." Keith whispered, " _Lumos."_

The end of his wand lit up, and they crept out the portrait hole into the hallway. They made it to the end of the corridor without any mishaps, so naturally, something went wrong.

A meow sounded in the distance, but not too far off.

Keith and Lance looked at each other with wide eyes.

"Mrs. Norris." Keith breathed, not daring to speak much louder for fear of being caught, "I almost forgot about her and Filch."

"C'mon, I know a shortcut." Lance said, his voice just as quiet as Keith's.

The two boys crept along the wall and down a staircase, then Lance lifted a tapestry to reveal a secret staircase. They quickly hid behind the tapestry, and listened with baited breath.

Silence. Footsteps walking along the corridor leading to the Gryffindor common room. Footsteps fading. More silence.

"That was close." Keith whispered, smiling a bit in relief.

"Yeah."

It was only now that the two boys realized how close they were to one another. The staircase was built to one person wide, and they were both standing on the same step, because of how quickly they hid, so they were nose to nose, and chest to chest.

"Um...sorry...I'll just..." Keith stammered, stepping down a step.

"Careful, two steps down from there is a trick step, and your foot will sink right into it." Lance warned, changing the subject because he was certain his face was bright red.

"Good to know." Keith acknowledged as he jumped the trick step and continued on, "So which way now Mister Shortcut?"

"Uh...right? I think? Or left. No wait that's...right. Go right."

"Wow. Such confidence and certainty. Makes me so amazed at your navigation skills."

"Shut up."

They went right and soon found themselves in a dead end.

"I _knew_ it was left. Going right didn't seem right. Ha, right didn't seem right. But no. It was definitely left." Lance corrected himself as they turned around and saw Mrs. Norris blinking at them innocently with her flashlight-like eyes.

"Shit." Keith swore quietly, "Quick, in here."

He grabbed Lance by his coat sleeve and dragged him through the nearest door, into what looked like it was a broom cupboard.

They heard footsteps approaching outside the door. The footsteps got closer...closer...closer

Louder

Louder

Louder

Closer

Louder

They were right outside the door.

They passed by the door and continued down the corridor, and they heard Filch muttering to himself before the footsteps passed back by them and walked away, down another corridor.

Meanwhile, Lance and Keith were holding their breath, in a position that was somewhat exactly the same as before. Nose to nose, chest to chest.

Keith could feel Lance's heartbeat against his own and it was _not_ helping his growing crush on the boy.

Meanwhile, Lance was in a similar situation, seeing as he'd had a crush on Keith for a year now, and this little adventure wasn't helping anything.

So long story short, both Lance and Keith were both a bit flustered, and wondering why they ever thought it was a good idea to go adventuring with their friend who _totally wouldn't be into them_.

"C'mon, coast is clear." Keith whispered, and he opened the door to check once before he walked out, Lance following a moment later.

"So we're basically just going to the greenhouses, but from inside instead of outside like most people. So we go this way." Lance said, walking ahead of Keith to lead the way.

"You'd better be right this time, Lance." Keith grumbled, "Cause if not I'm going to physically fight you."

"Noted. Good thing is, I'm not wrong so you won't have to harm this pretty face." Lance joked, turned around and walking backwards to shoot Keith a wink and finger guns.

' _Shit_.' Keith mentally swore as he blushed and looked at the ground, letting his hair fall in his face to hide his blush, _'Why me?'_

"Awe, you know you love me and my bad jokes." Lance teased as he spun around so he was walking the right direction again.

They were silent for the rest of the trek across the castle, with the exception of a couple moments where they had to jump into empty classrooms and broom cupboards to avoid Filch and Mrs. Norris, and a couple patrolling teachers.

"Why are the teachers patrolling? They've never patrolled before." Lance muttered to Keith.

"It might have something to do with Matt and Shiro disappearing." Keith shrugged, "How much further until we find this 'Three Ladies' painting?"

"Not much further, it's actually right..." Lance said, walking along a row of paintings until he found the right one, "Here!"

"Okay, so what now? Look around for clues?" Keith asked.

"Or ask the painting." Lance suggested, "Psst, hey! Maria! Janice! Gwen! Wake up I need your help!"

The three women in the painting stirred and opened their eyes groggily.

"Who's there?" One in a red dress asked.

"It's Lance." The one in the green dress said.

"Ooo I like talking to him." The third one, in a blue dress, smiled.

"Hiya Ladies! So, I'm looking for my friend, Keith's, brother, Shiro. He's the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, has a metal arm, tuft of gray hair in his bangs, went missing around a month ago, ever seen him?" Lance asked.

Red dress narrowed her eyes.

"He's got the black hair right?"

"And the unicorn patronus?" Green dress asked.

"And was kidnapped?" Blue dress continued.

"Yeah, that's him." Keith confirmed.

"Nope, we don't know." Red dress said.

"Never seen him." Green said, "But Gwen here won't shut up about him."

Blue dress, Gwen, nodded.

"I saw him around a month ago. You see, he was patrolling when all of a sudden there was a flash of red light and he just fell! Right to the ground like a sack of potatoes. Then this strange voice spoke from the shadows and stepped into the light so I could see him. He had these really weird eyes and strange skin. His eyes glowed purple and his skin was purple too! I guess he mustve been a dark wizard."

"Thanks Gwen!" Lance beamed, "Thanks to you too, Maria and Janice!"

"No problem. Can we go back to sleep now?" Red dress asked.

"Yes, you can go back to sleep." Lance rolled his eyes.

"So we've got a start." Keith said, "This guy with the Purple Aesthetic seems to be our suspect."

Footsteps echoed from around the corner of the corridor they were in.

"In here." Keith hissed, dragging Lance by his collar into another broom cupboard as he put out his wand.

They waited with baited breath as the footsteps echoed past the broom cupboard and down the corridor.

"Okay, time to go back now." Keith whispered, and Lance nodded.

They snuck through the halls, continuing the pattern of hiding in empty rooms and cupboards when they heard footsteps the whole way back. They fortunately got back without being caught, and went back to bed, leaving the strange purple wizard to deal with the next day.


	14. Chapter 14

The next morning, Keith woke up to the Gryffindor team captain, James Griffin, shaking him and frowning.

"C'mon mate, we've got a game. Get up!" He chided, and Keith sat straight up, eyes wide.

_The game._

Keith bolted out of bed and threw on his uniform calling out a quick "Sorry!" to James.

He raced down the stairs to the Great Hall and made his way to his usual seat, where Lance was waiting.

"Why the _bloody hell_ didn't you wake me up?" Keith grumbled, chugging a cup of coffee ( _he felt pretty tired and falling asleep in the middle of a quidditch match is never good_ ) and shoveling a couple pieces of bacon into his mouth.

"You looked tired." Lance shrugged, "Why?"

"It's _Saturday._ " Keith reminded him, "Gryffindor plays today and I'm the fucking _Seeker._ "

"Oh yeah. I guess I forgot." Lance said, "You're up now though, so it's all good, right?"

Keith sighed.

"Yeah, Yeah. You're fine. To be honest, I forgot too." Keith admitted, "Sorry. Now, I gotta go. See you after the match."

"Good luck!" Lance beamed as Keith got up and walked out towards the quidditch pitch.

 _'God dammit this boy is going to be the death of me_.' He fumed, his face red, ' _Who gave him the_ ** _fucking_** _right to have suc_ _h_ _an adorable smile?'_

There was still snow on the ground, as always the case at Hogwarts in the wintertime, and a chill in the air that made Keith glad he had gloves, even if they were fingerless.

Gryffindor lost the match against Ravenclaw, much to the team's disappointment. Keith had been too tired and distracted by his own thoughts to function, and the Ravenclaw Seeker has gotten the Snitch first.

"Ah, you did your best. Come on, you can't expect to win every single match, can you?" Lance encouraged him, but Keith was lost deep in thought.

He was thinking about the strange purple wizard who had apparently kidnapped his brother. And about how fucking stupid he was for forgetting the match and getting distracted.

"–eith. Keith!" Lance was waving a hand in front of Keith's face, "Helloooo Earth to Keith, do you copy?"

"What?" Keith snapped, then sighed, "Sorry, I'm just thinking."

"About...?" Lance prompted, sticking his hands in his robe pockets.

"My brother. And whoever Purple Aesthetic dude is."

"Makes sense. At least we have a basic description so we know who to look out for." Lance said, kicking a pile of snow over, "We could go to the library and see if there's a book on infamous wizards and witches; maybe try to find whoever Purple dude is."

Keith shrugged.

"Why not? Worst case, we look and find nothing which isn't too bad."

~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~

Two hours later, they had combed through almost every book on infamous witches and wizards. There was a large stack of useless books (for what they needed anyways) sitting next to the table they had occupied, and only three more books sitting on the table.

"How is it," Keith started, teaching for one of the remaining books, "That we've looked through all these books, and haven't found a single thing about a purple skinned wizard, but we've found near ten pages talking about Fredrick the Frog Killer?"

"To be fair he did kill any wizard with a frog Animagi form or a frog patronus." Lance reasoned, also reaching for another book, "That sounds pretty devious to me."

"But couldn't they at least given him a better name?"

"Honestly, why is it that villains and criminals always seem to get the coolest names? Meanwhile the hero is sitting in the corner all 'I'm Theodore the toothless.'"

"I dunno, I guess nobody wants to upset somebody evil o–"

"I FOUND IT!"

"Mr. McClain, quiet down!" Madam Pince scolded from her desk.

Lance grinned sheepishly, then turned back to where Keith was waiting with wide eyes.

"I found something, here."

They both leaned in to read the passage.

_The infamous purple eyed wizard known by the name of Zarkon has been known to commit a number of kidnappings, usually either brainwashing the victim to join his followers, or using them for research. The latter option usually only applies to wizards or witches with rare patronus', wand types, or other aspects._

_Zarkon has gone missing, and his followers have mysteriously gone quiet. He hasn't been seen for over a thousand years and is believed to be dead, but no body has ever been found._

"Holy shit." Keith whispered, "He's immortal."

"Or something close to it. Does Shiro fit any of those requirements for being kidnapped for research?"

"Didn't you see his patronus the day he taught us? It's a unicorn, that's one of the rarest patronus'. And his arm is unique, he enchanted it himself. I dunno about his wand, pretty sure it's like...ebony wood and Phoenix tail feather. Don't know much more than that, it's not my wand." Keith whispered, getting more worried the more he thought about it, "Holy shit Shiro could be in serious danger if this is the wizard who's kidnapped him."

Lance glanced at the book, then at Madam Pince. He shifted a couple books to form a barrier then started quietly ripping out the page on Zarkon.

"In case we need to review." Lance said upon seeing Keith's startled look, "It's not like we can't just put it back and repair it with a quick spell when we're done."

" _You could have just checked out the book you absolute idiot."_ Keith hissed, "Pidge is gonna _kill_ me when she find out we vandalized a book."

"Ah, you'll be fine. Now c'mon, let's see if he's mentioned in this last book."

He was not mentioned except for a paragraph saying the same stuff they already knew. He was thought to be dead, he had a history of kidnappings, blah blah blah.

"So this is all we have to go on." Keith noted as they put their stack of books back, "I wonder if there's anything in the Restricted section on him..."

"Not like there's a teacher alive who'd let us check out a book on deadly wizards. They'd think we're planning something." Lance snorted.

"We _are_ planning something." Keith pointed out, letting the book in his hand float up to its shelf, "Maybe we could sneak in and get a book."

"Nah, I've heard they're enchanted to scream if they aren't checked out." Lance sighed, "Maybe ask Professor Binns? He's sure to let you check it out if he thought you were studying."

"Maybe. I'll try it."

~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~

Keith had History of Magic on Monday, and after yet another mind numbing class, Keith stayed behind.

"Uh...Professor Binns? Could I ask you a favor?" Keith asked.

_Stay calm, you aren't looking for a deadly wizard, you're looking to get some extra studying done for class._

"Yes, Mr. Kogane?"

"I was wondering...I wanted to get some extra studying done in this class and I found a book with a lot of useful information on infamous wizards of the dark ages. The only issue is, it's in the Restricted Section."

"So you need a signature." Binns summed up, "Well, I suppose. On one condition. I need an essay on one infamous witch or wizard. Turn it in by next class, on Wednesday, and you have your signature."

"Deal. Thanks Professor!"

He found Lance waiting for him outside the classroom.

"What's he say?"

"I have to turn in an essay on an infamous witch or wizard by Wednesday, and then he'll give me the signature." Keith said, "I'm gonna need some help with this."

Lance grimaced.

"I'll call in the reinforcements."

~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~

Hunk, Pidge, Lance, and Keith sat at a table in the library, books piled high around them as they each jotted down notes on a witch who apparently had a bat animagi form and caused legends of vampires to spread like wildfire.

It was boring and tedious work, but Keith was determined to find his brother, and if that meant grasping at straws and doing this essay for a book that might not even contain the information he needed, then so be it.

"It says here she married a dude who also had a bat animagi form. Anybody have that down?" Lance whispered, breaking the deafening silence between them.

"Yeah, how about putting down that she bewitched her canine teeth to appear larger and sharper so she could pretend to bite people to fuel rumors." Pidge suggested, adjusting her glasses.

"Holy shit for real?" Lance asked, his quill furiously scratching at the parchment, "When are they going to let us use pens? Like seriously, it's the 21st century now. Nobody uses quills and ink anymore."

"I don't know, maybe pens don't react well with magic? Maybe they're easier to enchant with cheating spells? Whatever the case complaining isn't going to get these notes written down."

They worked for around another hour, until Keith had almost finished the essay.

"Thank you so much for helping guys. You really didn't have to." Keith said as he jotted down the last sentence.

"Nah, it was pretty interesting." Pidge shrugged, grinning, "Plus, if you find Shiro, you'll probably find Matt, right? And if this gets us one step closer to our brothers, then I'll do anything."

"Plus," Hunk added, "We haven't spent a whole lot of time together recently. It was fun hanging out with you guys!"

"Still, you didn't have to help me." Keith repeated, "So I'm still thanking you. Let me know if you guys need anything, and I'll help if I can."

"I just want to find my brother." Pidge shrugged again, "This is a way to do it. Just promise me you'll let me come with you when we go looking for Shiro and Matt."

"I can't think of anything I need, but it's honestly not necessary. You're my friend and I help my friends no matter what." Hunk said, "And if all of you guys are going to be going into the forest, then I guess I'll come too. Somebody needs to be there to be impulse control."

"Okay then. You guys are in." Keith grinned.

 


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is mainly Lance POV! Just a change of pace.

Lance sighed as he glanced at the clock tower through the window of the Divination classroom.

A whole thirty minutes left of Trelawney ranting about misfortune and death to the class.

Yeah, yeah, _she's had two prophecies come true_ and _she's a real seer_ but c'mon, not everybody dies at 16.

Lance sighed and tilted his teacup to see his leaves from all the angles, muttering meanings and possible shapes to himself.

"Let's see, a cross this way...trials and suffering oh boy. A skull next, danger. And a...a sun? Great happiness. Then...that's a...is that a bird? Either a dove or a falcon. Falcon is a deadly enemy and a dove is...love? No way, it's a falcon. So I'm going to be in danger with a bunch of trials and suffering, probably from a deadly enemy. But I'll be happy about it."

 _'There's always the other possibility..._ ' a voice in his head whispered, ' _It could mean–_ '

"Nope! I'm going to suffer and I'll like it." He muttered, putting all thoughts of the other possible meanings out of his mind.

Class went by painfully slow. The room was full of the heat from the fireplace which made it both uncomfortably stuffy and extremely comfortably warm compared to outside. Trelawney was walking around now, checking tea leaf predictions.

When she got to Lance, she frowned at the cup.

"Ah...I see...I see..." her eyes darted up from the cup to Lance, "My dear boy, you are feeling confused. It is to be expected, with a fate as complicated as this. I'll tell you this. That birds meaning will depend entirely on you, and your decisions to come."

She moved on to the next student, muttering something about how their tea leaves looked especially clear or something.

Lance was still stuck on Trelawney's words. 'The meaning will depend on me and my actions?' Bullshit. The future can't be changed.

Can it?

~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~

Lance made his way back to the Gryffindor common room after class, head still swimming with questions and confusion. He gave the Fat Lady the password and walked into the common room, barely noticing that everybody was gone. He flopped into an armchair and sighed.

"Why the bloody hell is everything so confusing?" He muttered to the air.

He heard footsteps on the staircase and turned to see Keith walking down from the boys dormitory, hair slightly damp from having showered.

"Hi." Lance greeted, announcing his presence.

"Sup." Keith sat down in an armchair next to Lance.

 _His hair's really long._ Lance noticed, _I wonder if it's long enough to braid._

"Hey Keith, can I braid your hair?" Lance asked, certain his ears were probably turning red.

Keith gave him a look of bewilderment, "Uh...sure?"

"Yay!" Lance beamed and Keith moved from his armchair to the floor in front of Lance.

"Have you found anything else on Zarkon?" He asked, separating Keith's mullet into three pieces.

"Yeah, actually! The book I checked out from the Restricted Section has a whole chapter on him and his history. I think I've also found out why he'd take Matt, if he took Matt. It said he kidnaps wizards with genius minds and puts them under the imperious curse, then makes them research for him."

"Wow." Lance was speechless, "I can't think of anything to say to that. Just...wow."

Silence for a couple beats.

"Your hair is really soft, you know that?" Lance asked, "Like, ridiculously soft. Inhumanly soft."

"...thanks?"

Keith's ears had gone red, and Lance took an odd satisfaction in making him blush.

"Aaaaaaand...done!" Lance finished the braid, and sat back to admire his handiwork.

Keith looked up at him and gave him a suspicious look.

"You didn't put flowers in it like from whatever that Disney Rapunzel movie was, did you?"

Lance grinned.

"No, but I should have."

"If you did I would've actually cut you with my knife."

"Aw, you know you could never hurt me." Lance kept grinning.

"What if I just sat on you?" Keith poked him.

"Rude."

And then Keith started tickling Lance's sides, with an absolutely shit-eating grin.

"No! Stop. I surrender!"

"There's no surrendering a tickle fight! Only win or lose!" Keith laughed as Lance fell in the ground with him. He stopped his tickle attack and firmly seated himself on Lance's stomach.

"Get off Nerd! Your butt is crushing me!"

"Nope! You can't make me!" Keith smirked.

Lance tried to push Keith off but gave up and resigned to being used as a couch.

"I'm disowning you as a friend." Lance declared jokingly.

"Ah, you know you can never get rid of me now. You're in it for life, mate."

"Yo so something really weird happened in Divination today." Lance said, "We we're doing tea leaves, right? And I got a cross, a skull, a sun, and some sort of bird. So the cross is trials and suffering, skull is danger. The sun is happiness, and the bird probably means a deadly enemy. But then Trelawney walked by and said something about like "The meaning of the bird depends on you and your decisions", whatever that means."

"Weird." Keith agreed, "What else could the bird be?"

"It doesn't make sense, but it would've been a dove. Doves are usually used to mean love, so I have no idea how that ties into the whole 'dangerous trials and suffering' thing."

Keith was silent for a minute.

"Maybe," He said slowly, "It means you have to go through dangerous trials and suffering to get to love and happiness. And maybe the bird just means both a dangerous enemy and love. What if the person you're going to end up loving could totally kick your ass in a fight? That would be a dangerous enemy, but a valuable friend, right?"

"Yeah, That actually makes a lot of sense." Lance pondered, "Thanks man."

"No problem."

"Can you get off me now?"

"Nope!" Keith grinned, popping the 'p'.

 


	16. Chapter 16

Lance woke up in the middle of the night. It was pitch black outside and inside, and he almost rolled over and went back to sleep.

Almost.

His instincts were keeping him awake, telling him something was...off. Something was wrong.

He sat up and blinked hard, then widened his eyes as if it would help his eyes adjust faster.

Once his eyes adjusted to the dark, he could very faintly make out the furniture.

And the blurry outline of an empty bed.

 _Keith's_ empty bed. And the mullet himself nowhere in sight.

Lance threw back his sheets and shoved his feet in his slippers as he pulled on a robe (since the castle got really quite cold at night) and raced down the dormitory staircase.

He flew through the portrait hole and thought he saw the light of a wand and the shadow of a mullet disappear around the corner to his left. He followed as quickly and quietly as possible.

Through the corridors, always just a second too late to catch Keith, always seeing his robe flick out of sight or watching his shadow creep away as the wand light fades. Down the staircases to the greenhouses, where fewer teachers patrolled (they watched the Great Hall more, since that was the main entrance), and out into the small field separating the school from the forest.

Lance could see Keith now, could shout to him if not for the fear of being caught or of startling Keith into moving faster. Lance broke into a quiet run, closing the distance until he was close enough to whisper.

"Keith, what are you doing?!" He whisper-shouted, and stopped. Keith had spun around, eyes wide when he heard Lance's voice.

"I'm getting my brother. What do you think? It's been almost five months since he went missing, I can't wait any longer!" Keith whispered back, half-glaring at Lance, half-...something else that looked desperate.

"At least wait for Pidge and Hunk, you promised them. Hunks brewing potions to help, and Pidge knows more advanced spells than anybody else in our year. Plus, they're our friends." Lance reasoned, "Don't do it alone, from what we've read you'll need all the he—"

"I don't want _help!_ " Keith interrupted, his voice louder than a whisper now, "I want to stop _sitting around_ while my _brother_ , the _only person who was around to raise me_ , is _missing!_ Kidnapped by an _immortal dark wizard_ for _experiments!_ "

"I get it, but —"

"No! You don't get it. Shiro is the closest thing I have to a father, and now he's... _gone_." Keith was yelling now, and then his voice was suddenly soft, "I've almost lost him before, I can't lose him again."

"You've got a much better chance of getting him back if you have help." Lance pointed out, taking a step towards Keith, "If you go alone, then it's not a rescue mission, it's a suicide mission.

"Let your friends help you."

~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~

In Charms class the next day, Keith and Lance were practically falling asleep. Every couple minutes one would nod off, then wake up a moment later. Then the other one would do the same thing.

They both welcomed History of Magic, where it was normal to see students sleeping and they wouldn't get in _too_ much trouble (hopefully).

Then it was free period. Lance was rested enough to finally throw shade at Keith.

"So," he started once Pidge and hunk had arrived, "A certain mulleted someone tried to go into the forest last night."

Keith glared at Lance.

"Shiro has been missing for _four,_ almost _five months_. So has Matt. I can't wait any longer. We've found all the information we can and we've studied everything that could possibly help. I'm going after him again tonight. If you guys want to, you can join me. I'll be here at midnight."

"Well then, I guess we're sneaking out tonight." Pidge smirked, "I'll be sure to boot up Rover."

Pidge had an enchanted drone she somehow got to work even with the magical disturbances. She had explained it once, something about being fueled by magic instead of muggle power sources.

~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~

That night, there were four beds empty. Two in the Gryffindor tower, one in the Slytherin dungeon, and one in the Hufflepuff dormitories.

Four figures in robes gathered in the courtyard and turned towards the woods. One carried Potions for healing, another carried a triangular-pyramid shaped object, and the other two carried lit wands.

They made their way down to the edge of the forest and glanced at each other before plunging into the dark trees, minds set to return with the missing people...

Or not at all.

 


	17. Chapter 17

Keith stared at the dark expanse of trees around them, widening his eyes in a futile attempt to adjust to the pitch black darkness. They were so deep in the woods, the only reason they weren't tripping over every tree root and fallen branch were the circles of light produced by their wands.

"Which way now, Pidge?" Lance whispered, breaking the eerie silence of the forest.

Pidge glanced at Rover, who was currently tracking Shiro using an old shirt Keith had stolen from his office.

The magical robot hovered towards the left and the group of four followed, Pidge in the lead.

They followed Rover until the sun started to rise, but it did little good in their deep portion of the forest.

Finally, after a couple more hours of searching, Rover stopped at Pidge's direction and they crouched behind undergrowth and stared at an overgrown bunker-type building.

It was low to the ground, and made of smooth stone. Ivy and moss covered most of the exterior, with the doors being the exception.

"There's most likely a basement under it, meaning at least two levels to search." Pidge whispered.

"Or there's an Undetectable Extension Charm." Hunk suggested, whispering as well, "Or both. There could be a maze in there."

"We need to plan this out carefully." Pidge turned to Lance and Keith, "We'll split up. You guys have the cloth I gave you before we left the castle, right?"

Lance nodded and brought it out of his pocket.

"If it turns green, it means we've found Shiro and Matt, and they're safe. Yellow is we've found them but we can't get them yet and you need to find us. Red is we need backup or we are in danger. Whisper _Viridi_ for green, _Flavo_ for yellow, and _Rubrum_ for red." Pidge explained, pulling an identical cloth out of her pocket, "They're enchanted so that if one changes color, the other will too. To reset the color just shake it."

Keith pointed his wand at the cloth. " _Viridi_." He muttered, and the both squares fabric turned a bright green. Lance shook it and it turned white again.

"Great. How do we know where each other are if we need help?" Keith asked.

"The cloth will guide you. Just follow it." Pidge said, "Hunk and I will be a team, you two will be a team. Ready?"

They all poised to run towards the door.

"One at a time. Hunk and I will go first." Hunk and Pidge darted to the door. Pidge tapped her wand against the handle and unlocked it, then they both slipped inside.

"Ready?" Lance asked.

"Born ready." Keith smirked, "Let's go find my brother."

They sprinted towards the door, slipping inside quickly and shutting it behind them.

They were greeted with a maze-like system of hallways and three paths to go.

"Three directions." Lance muttered, "Hunk and Pidge went left, there's a mark on the wall. Straight ahead or right?"

"Right."

They made their way through the halls, ducking behind corners to avoid the few guards they encountered. Lance tied the cloth Pidge gave them around his wrist, so he could see it if the color changed.

Then, they heard a scream.

Lance and Keith whipped around to face the direction of the noise and immediately checked the cloth around Lance's wrist.

Still white.

Keith motioned towards the noise silently, his message clear.

_We should check it out, it could be Matt or Shiro._

Lance nodded, and they both readied their wands. They crept along the wall as silently as possible, the adrenaline making them flinch every time a distant footstep echoed through the hallways.

Keith felt something touch his hand and jumped, looking behind him to see Lance taking his hand, which for some reason made Keith's heart skip a beat. Why the _fuck_ is Lance affecting him this much? He knew he had a small crush on him, but it must be the anxiety about being so close to finding Shiro that was making him this jumpy.

Keith smiled reassuringly and squeezed Lance's hand, but didn't let go.

They kept moving, the hallway seeming to get longer with every step they took.

Another scream rang out, this time closer. It sounded like whoever was screaming was in pain, it was an awful scream that sounded like they had given up and it was an instinct to cry out.

Keith motioned with his wand hand towards the door ahead of them, at the end of the hall. Lance nodded and they sped up a bit, still moving as silently as their speed would allow.

They let each other's hands go as they reached the door, and thankfully it had a small peek hole to see through, so they could see what they were getting into.

They leaned up to look through and what they saw horrified them.

Shiro, strapped to a table so he couldn't move. He was under a billion lights as if he were being examined. Multicolored bubbles hovered around him, some sort of spell that affected him somehow. As they watched another person walked out from the shadows and raised their wand at Shiro.

It was Matt, but it wasn't. His movements were jerky and rather like a puppet being controlled, like he wasn't in charge if his mind or movements.

A spell was muffled by the door and a flash of blue light surrounded Shiro. The scream filled the air again, and Keith and Lance watched in horror as the light condensed into a blue bubble and floated to join the other bubbles.

"We have to call Pidge and Hunk." Lance frantically whispered, wincing slightly at the volume of his voice even though it wasn't any louder than a breath.

Keith nodded mutely, barely registering the words as he watched his brother, who's head slumped on his chest in defeat once he had stopped screaming.

" _Flavo_." Lance breathed to the cloth, pointing his wand at it. The cloth turned a bright yellow color and Lance glanced at Keith and took his friend's hand.

"He'll be okay. We've got a better chance of rescuing him if Pidge and Hunk are here, right?" He whispered, giving a small smile and squeezing Keith's hand like the former had done for him.

_He's going to be the death of me._

"Yeah..." Keith whispered absent-mindlessly, before shaking his head to clear the fog. His face took on a determined look, "But that's not to say we can't at least protect him till Hunk and Pidge get here."

He pointed his wand at the cloth and whispered " _Rubrum_ " before turning and facing the door.

" _Keith what are you doing?!?_ " Lance hissed at him as Keith unlocked the door with a wave of his wand.

"I'm rescuing my brother."

 


	18. Chapter 18

_"_ **_Keith what are you doing?!?_ ** _" Lance hissed at him as Keith unlocked the door with a wave of his wand._

_"I'm rescuing my brother."_

~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~

Matt's back was turned when Keith opened the door, so all it took was a single " _Stupefy_!" to knock him down.

Lance slid into the room and helped Keith undo the straps holding Shiro in place. Thankfully, they weren't hard to break. At least, not if you had a wand.

Keith glanced around the room for Shiro's wand and metal arm, and swore when he didn't see them.

"Just our luck, the evil wizard was smart for once and put the prisoners things in a different room." He muttered, grabbing a spare shirt from the corner since Shiro's was ripped to shreds.

The door creaked open behind them, and both Lance and Keith whipped around, wands at the ready.

"Geez! Don't point those things at us!" Hunk complained, putting his hands up like it was a loaded gun. Keith supposed that, in a sense, it was.

"I see you've knocked out my brother." Pidge commented, nudging Matt's arm with her shoe, "Might I ask why?"

"He's not in control of himself." Lance explained what they saw.

"Oh. Yeah, that makes sense then." Pidge nodded, "So we grab Matt and run? Or is there something else keeping us in the extremely dangerous bunker of evil?"

"Shiro's wand and arm. We need them and they aren't in here." Keith spoke up, pulling Shiro's good arm over his shoulders, "If somebody else takes Shiro and Matt and gets them out, I can find them."

"Nonononononono you're not going off alone in this place! You heard Pidge! It's dangerous." Hunk protested, "I'm coming with you."

"I'd let you come, but Shiro and Matt are too heavy for Pidge and Lance alone."

"There are spells for that." Pidge added as she muttered something under her breath and Matt hovered a couple feet above the ground. She flicked her wand and Matt started following her as she walked over to where Keith and Hunk were, "We'll be fine. Let Hunk come with you, he's surprisingly good at mazes."

"Fine." Keith gave in, "But we need a cloth."

Hunk held up the still-magically-red piece of fabric and shook it so it went white.

"Alright, let's go then." Keith shrugged.

He and Hunk went first, slipping out of the room and moving down the hallway, going deeper into the maze of tunnels.

Five minutes in, Hunk asked a question.

"So how long have you liked Lance?"

Keith sputtered and almost choked on air.

"Um...I uh...I don't? Why would you ever think that, that's ridiculous. Me? Have a crush on my best friend? Who makes annoying jokes and bad pickup lines that somehow just add to his charm? I...I don't know what you're talking about it's completely —"

"So a while then."

Keith sighed."

"For a while I guess but I realized after the Patronus lesson."

Hunk eyes widened.

"Did your Patronus...?"

"No! No," Keith paused, "Least not that I know of."

Hunk peeked into a room and featured for Keith to follow. They crept in and crouched behind a table before Hunk looked back and mouthed a word at Keith.

_Guards_

Keith readied his wand but Hunk put a hand on top of his wrist and shook his head. He brought out a vial of some potion, shook it up, and threw it to the center of the room.

"Hey! What's this?" A voice said, before there was a bright flash of white light and a moan of pain.

Keith peeked over the table and saw three guards covering their eyes.

He pointed at his wand hopefully and hunk nodded.

 _"Stupefy!_ " He cast, repeating the spell until all three were securely tied up and knocked out against the wall.

"Let's see, metal goggles, neon blue wand, blah, blah, blah..." Hunk muttered, "Ha! Here we go."

He pulled a metal arm covered in runes out of the pile.

"That's his arm alright. Now we have to find his wand. See any wands in there?"

Hunk held up an average looking wand with a _T. S._ carved in the handle.

"Yeah this is it." Keith confirmed, "Okay let's get out of here. This place gives me the creeps."

Hunk stuffed the arm and wand in his bag, then they turned and crept through the winding halls, avoiding guards until they came to the exit hall. Hunk pulled Keith into a room, shushing him and pointing at the exit when Keith looked confused.

A wizard wearing burgundy robes with gold trim was standing at the end of the hallway. He had a purplish-gray skin and he was speaking to a guard, who looked as if he were being addressed by somebody of great importance.

"...gone. My best researcher, and the teacher I kidnapped. You need to find them. Nobody can know where we are, or that I am still at power." The burgundy-robed wizard said, back still turned to Hunk and Keith.

He turned and walked briskly down the hallway going to Keith's left, the hallway he and lance went down when they entered. The guard took up a position at the end of the hall, apparently guarding the door.

Fortunately, the guard's back was to them, so they could stun him and slip out easily.

Then they ran. Lance and Pidge leapt up from the undergrowth where they had been waiting. Matt hovered behind Pidge, Lance and Keith carried Shiro by supporting him with their shoulders.

Keith tripped over a tree root and he went flying, hitting his nose against a rock on the ground.

"I'll carry Shiro." Hunk offered, though it sounded more like a demand, as he slung the unconscious teacher over his shoulder.

Keith had gotten up and was cupping his nose as they continued to run, even though they weren't being chased. Blood started pooling in Keith hand, as to be expected after hitting your nose on a rock, and a throbbing started spreading through his head.

They ran until they were all out of breath, around 15 minutes more. It was enough to get them to the part of the forest where you could see the light on the ground.

"C'mere." Lance muttered to Keith, pulling out his wand and pushing the cupped hand away, " _Episkey!_ "

The bleeding stopped, and the throbbing faded to a slight headache.

"Thanks." He muttered, turning to where Shiro was.

They were all silent for a moment.

"We actually did it." Keith whispered, "We found and saved Shiro."

"Damn right we did." Pidge smirked.

"He'll need these, right?" Hunk asked, passing Keith Shiro's arm and wand.

"Thanks, Hunk."

"No problem. It was pretty fun adventuring with you guys!" Hunk beamed.

"Now come on, we should get them back to the castle as quick as possible so they can get treated." Pidge pointed out.

So they started walking again, making their way through the woods back to the castle.

 


	19. Chapter 19

Of course, Shiro and Matt were admitted to the hospital wing immediately, and Keith, Lance, Pidge and Hunk were sent to a detention for sneaking into the forest at night. They thankfully only lost 10 points each but it added up to 20 points from Gryffindor, which made Keith's spirits sink.

The detention wasn't too bad. They had to help Filch patrol the halls one night until midnight then they were escorted back to their tower.

Then, of course, they had Potions.

"Today, we will be learning how to brew the most dangerous love potion know to wizard kind." Honerva announced as she marched down the aisle in the middle of the room, "One drop can make you fall madly in love with the brewer, and that is why I will not be allowing you to complete it fully. The last two steps have been omitted from the recipe you will be using."

A couple of girls grumbled quietly to their friends.

"You may ask, if it's so dangerous why teach us about it?" Honerva continued, "I am teaching you this because you must be aware of the dangers of love Potions, especially ones as potent as Amortentia, the potion you will be brewing today. Who can tell me what Amortentia smells like?"

Hunk raised his hand.

"It smells like whatever you find most appealing."

"Very good, Mr. Garrett. 5 points to Hufflepuff."

She gestured at a cauldron at her desk.

"I have brewed the full potion myself and you can come up and smell it yourself during class to see the effects. Now, begin brewing."

A scroll appeared at each students seat with ingredients and instructions. Each scroll was blank at the bottom where Keith assumed the last instructions would be.

The class went by painstakingly slow, and throughout class, whenever they reached a spot where they had to wait for something to boil, students would get up and go smell the potion and either walk away with a look of bewilderment or a look that said they were drunk on the smell.

Sure, Keith was curious. But he dreaded going up there because of two things.

He could almost tell you one thing he'd smell.

He didn't want to be right. It would mean more pain later.

Lance poked his side and gestures towards the cauldron.

"Are you gonna go see what it smells like?" He whispered.

"I don't know." Keith hesitated before continuing, "I'll go if you go."

Lance just grinned and got up, making his way to the love potion on the desk.

He did what every confused student had done: sniff it, blink, sniff it again, and turn around with a bewildered look. But Lance's face looked almost thoughtful, like he was trying to place an unknown smell.

"Now you go." Lance muttered, poking Keith's side.

Keith sighed dramatically before getting up and walking up to the potion.

He smelled it, and could distinguish a couple scents, smells that shouldn't go well together but somehow did. The oil from summers spent working on a motorcycle. The musty woody smell of the forest and broom cupboards. And a salty scent that reminded him of what he thought the ocean would smell like. Salty, but coconut-y at the same time, like sun tan lotion and ocean air.

Why would he smell the ocean? He had never been, never had the time or just never wanted to go.

He went back to his seat, more confused than he thought he'd be. He was certain it showed on his face, as every student before him had worn a look of bewilderment.

He worked through the rest of class trying to work out where he'd smelled the ocean before. What smelled like the ocean at Hogwarts?

He glanced at Lance out of the corner of his eye.

Or maybe not a what, but a who.

~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~

Keith paced in the Room of Requirement, thoughts swirling in his head as he muttered aloud.

"If I smelled _Lance_ then that means this goes deeper than a simple crush, that's not good cause that means...he'd never like me anyways, even if he is bi...but no, no chance. I'm not lucky like that, I've never been lucky like...but why didn't I see it _sooner_? Thinking of him helped me produce a corporeal patronus for God's sake, and I...bloody hell I'm an idiot! A bloody idiot!"

"Yeah, you kinda are."

Keith whirled around to see Pidge standing there, arms crossed and a smug grin on her face.

"Hunk and I have known for a while, case you were wondering." She said, "When are you going to stop being stupid and tell him?"

"Never. No chance in hell he'd like _me_."

Pidge sighed, and put her head on her hand as she walked over.

"You really are thick, you know that?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Look, there's an end of year feast, right? One month from now. You," she pointed at Keith, putting her finger in his face, "are going to ask him to sneak off with you for a picnic. He asks why, say something like, next years our last we won't he able to sneak out of graduation. Hunk will get food from the house elves in the kitchens and we'll help get it set up where you choose."

"Why do I have to do it during the feast?"

"Everybody will be distracted, even Filch, and nobody will notice you're missing. You could climb on the astronomy tower roof and do a barrel roll on your broomstick and nobody'd notice. It's the perfect time to sneak out. Or just not even show up at all, and go someplace else."

"Good point. But why am I even asking him?"

Pidge sighed again, mumbling something about 'so thick I don't know how he functions'.

"Because you're going to tell this boy you like him, and don't give me that look! You're going to tell him and it's going to work out well for you." She explained, mumbling as she added, "I've already lost the bet anyways."

"Alright, but if this goes bad and ruins our friendship I blame you." Keith agreed, crossing his arms.

It wasn't really hard to convince him, except for the fear that Lance would end up hating him for some reason or it would be incredibly awkward, and he would lose his closest friend.

So now all he had to do was figure out how to get Lance to skip the feast and follow him through a dark castle.

And also how to confess he liked him.

No pressure.

 


	20. Chapter 20

Keith had, unfortunately forgotten the last week of the last month was finals week.

He had taken a break from studying in the room of Requirement, where he practiced charms, in case of a practical exam.

" _Stupefy!"_

A dummy fell over.

_"Bombarda!"_

Another dummy blew up in a small explosion.

_"Wingardium Leviosa!"_

A fallen dummy hovered a couple feet in the air, directed by Keith's wand.

He turned to the last dummy, the one with the tattered cloak meant to resemble a dementor.

_"Expecto Patronum!"_

Keith watched the the silvery animal took shape, his face going bright red.

He promptly fell into a beanbag and screamed into a pillow.

~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~

The second week, he was able to talk to Hunk and Pidge, between study sessions of course, and decide on a location: the Room of Requirement. It could be anything he wanted, and it would be cut off from the castle. He could also make it have a passageway to the common room so they could get back without getting in trouble.

The third week arrived, less time to figure out how to go about asking Lance to meet him at the Room during the feast.

He was near panic now.

Shiro had gotten out of the hospital wing the week prior, so Keith went to him for advice.

"So, you need advice because you're going to confess to the boy you like at the end of this week, but you're afraid he won't like you back." Shiro summed up, "Are there any hints as to whether he likes you or not?"

"No.........well...he did braid my hair that one time...and er...well...he does help with my nightmares...cause he said it helps him to have somebody else there so...um...he said he didn't mind sharing a bed if I had nightmares..."

Shiro had a blank face.

"This boy literally shares a bed with you and you're worried about whether he likes you or not." He deadpanned, "Sorry, but you're a bit thick sometimes, you know that?"

"Well, it sounds stupid when you say it like that."

"Because it is. Relax. You'll be fine."

"I hope."

Then, it was the day of the feast. There were no classes, since it was the last day before finals, and Keith put that time to good use.

By hiding in the Room of Requirement and trying to think of how to ask Lance to meet him there.

"Think...think...it shouldn't be this hard to ask a friend to sneak out. Just say next year's graduation and you won't get able to sneak off then, you've got food don't worry, come on it'll be fun." He muttered, getting up from where he'd laid spread eagled in the beanbag for an hour. He started pacing, "Its easy, just say that. Here let's try on a dummy."

He made sure he was alone in the room before turning to a practice dummy.

"Er...hi Lance."

He swore.

"No, nope, absolutely not, too formal, too awkward and stiff. Definitely not."

He tried again.

"So, uh...next years graduation and...uh..."

Nope. Try again.

"Hey, do you want to sneak off from the feast tonight, I've got food, don't worry. Why, you ask? Well next year we graduate and we can't exactly sneak off during graduation, can we...?"

He propped his forearm against the dummy and pressed his forehead against it.

"Why can't I get this RIGHT?!" He exclaimed, punching the dummy, "It's going to be harder facing him. Gods sake, I'm hopeless. I can't even ask out a metal dummy!"

He flopped onto his beanbag again.

"I've got to do it today, before the feast. Might as well get it over with so I won't have to do it later. Just do it now, before Pidge starts pressuring you cause then you'll get nervous and stumble over your words like you do when you're overly stressed, in a nervous way."

He got up and steeled his nerves before leaving the Room of Requirement to find Lance.

~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~

He found him skipping stones across the lake.

"What's up?" He asked as he walked up to Lance.

"Not much. You?"

"Not much. Just wondering if you wanted to sneak away from the feast tonight."

"Alright."

"I mean, next year we can't really do it, graduation ceremony and all, and we can nick some food from the kitchens, so we'll have food and all —" he started rambling

"I said okay. Where do you want to meet?"

"And we won't— what?"

"Let's do it. Where are we going?"

Keith grinned.

"Great. Meet at the Room of Requirement.  
8 o'clock."

Lance smiled back at him.

"You got it!" He gave a finger gun and a wink making Keith's ears go hot.

"See you there, then."

"See you." Lance said as he went back to skipping rocks.

Keith turned and walked away, relieved and overjoyed.

But that was the easy part. The hard part was yet to come.

~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~

Later that evening, Keith was waiting at the Room of Requirement. He had put on his day clothes: dark red converse, ripped black jeans, black T-shirt, and his red leather jacket. He was waiting inside the Room, so the place would be all set up when Lance arrived.

The picnic itself wasn't romantic, no aspect of the surroundings was. It was just food and it shouldn't be too over the top since they would probably still be friends by the end. It was just a blanket the Room had produced, and the food Hunk had grabbed for them.

The ceiling looked like the Great Hall, with stars and clouds visible, like the Room didn't even have a ceiling. It was incredible, and since there weren't any other students or teachers to distract, you could appreciate it more, Keith thought.

The door creaked open and Lance walked in, looking up at the ceiling before he noticed Keith.

Lance was wearing a blue and white baseball shirt, blue jeans, a cargo jacket, and some name brand of sneakers that Keith couldn't read from that distance.

"Nice. It looks just like the Great Hall ceiling. This Room really is amazing." He said as he walked over, "Do we eat now?"

"Yep, unless you want me to make the headmasters boring speech."

"Oh god, please don't."

"Alright, Fine. I'm too hungry to do it anyways."

They brought out the food and ate, laughing at inside jokes, and stupid moments that happened that year, and overall just enjoying each other's company.

Then the food was gone and Keith knew he had to do what he had planned on doing.

His stomach felt queasy, and he wished he had done it before he had eaten, but it was too late to change that.

Before he could though, Lance started speaking.

"Hey, so next years our last and I've been thinking...what do we do after that?"

"Probably get jobs and make a living somehow."

"Yeah, that's a terrifying thought. In a year we'll be expected to make our own way in the world. No more help from teachers or peers."

"But you can always call me, if you need help. We're a team, and a good one at that."

"We do make a good team, don't we?" Lance smiled a bit.

_Do it now._ A voice that sounded suspiciously like Pidge chided Keith in his head.

He knew he'd have to eventually, but he didn't want to ruin the moment.

_You've gotta do it soon._

Keith sighed.

"I...uh..." He stammered, breaking the comfortable silence that had fallen.

Lance looked over at him, waiting.

"See...um...I, Er, well..." he tried again, looking down slightly so his hair covered his ears, which were warm.

He looked up at Lance suddenly.

"Wanna practice some spells?"

Lance grinned back at him.

"Is this a rematch for that duel we had a while ago? Cause I've been wanting a rematch."

Keith matched his grin, and got up, offering his friend a hand to help him up as well.

"Definitely."

They got into position on a dueling circle that magically drew itself in the center of the room.

"Ready?" Keith asked.

"Born ready."

"Ten paces, then a count to three."

_1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10_ he mentally counted his steps, then turned, Lance mirroring him.

"One, two, three, duel!" He called out, then raised his wand.

" _Impedimenta!"_ Keith cast, managing to hit Lance before he could block it. He smirked, he'd have time for his next spell.

_"Avis!"_ Eleven bright scarlet birds flew from his wand and circled around him. Just in time as well, since Lance was finally freed from the effects of the previous jinx.

" _Expeliarmus!"_ Lance cast.

Keith deflected the spell, and it ricocheted off of a dummy before dissipating.

_"Oppugno!"_ He shot back, aiming at Lance, and all nine birds dove at Lance.

Lance frantically cast _Protego_ , and all but three birds splatted and burst into clouds of scarlet feathers.

Keith called off their attack, as Lance threw up another shield.

"Okay, but I actually wanna show you something." He said, as the birds dissipated into feathers that gently fell to the ground.

"After the duel, man!" Lance smirked, as he sent a stunning spell at Keith, who quickly deflected it.

He rolled his eyes.

"If you insist." He readied his wand again.

" _Levicorpus!_ " He thought, and Lance was suddenly hoisted into the air by his ankle.

"Wha–no fair! You know I'm rubbish at inaudible spells!"

Keith just shrugged and let him down to the ground.

"Now what did you wanna show me?" Lance asked after sulking for a moment.

Keith froze. Fuck he was actually doing this, huh?

He took a deep breath.

"Don't hate me." He said quietly, watching how Lance's expression morphed into confusion. He cast the spell before Lance could say anything.

" _Expecto Patronum!_ "

And he watched as the silvery smoke morphed into an animal, but not the wolf it used to be.

Instead, a bright silver dolphin swan out of his wand.

He had Lance's patronus.

He turned back to Lance, but kept his eyes on his hands, not having the strength to look Lance in the eyes and see the disgust that was surely being displayed there.

"You're really thick, you know that?"

Keith's head jerked up and his eyes widened as suddenly Lance's face was _very_ close and then their lips were touching and Keith's mind went blank.

Lance was kissing him.

_Lance was kissing him._

That snapped him out of his trance and his eyes fluttered closed as he put his hand in Lance's neck and returned the kiss.

They broke apart a moment later, both with dopey grins painted on their faces. Keith pressed his forehead to Lance's, unwilling to pull away right that moment.

"In case you were wondering, this means I like you too, idiot." Lance muttered, "And now I've gotta show you something too."

Keith reluctantly stepped back, and lance pulled out his wand.

" _Expecto Patronum_!" He cast, and the silvery smoke formed an animal.

A wolf. It was a silver wolf.

Keith's dolphin swam through the air and circled around the wolf, before they both dissipated into wisps of silver smoke.

And Keith just stood there the entire time, certain he was going to die from the amount of blood rushing to his face.

"I really want to kiss you again now." He whispered, and he knew Lance heard him because there were now two boys with red faces instead of one.

"What's stopping you?"


End file.
